Complexity
by theballingtwinsx
Summary: Maybe they could just pretend nothing ever happened, they could just move on and everything would be normal again... or maybe everything would just become more complicated as time went by. Neither Paige nor Roman would ever admit it out loud, but they both knew that they were digging themselves into a whole, and it was only getting deeper. [with other couples; Demma, Nikki/Seth]
1. Chapter 1

In this story the Shield are not broken up, and you'll hopefully get to see many different couples develop. Hope you enjoy~

* * *

Brie was pretty much done packing and was all set to go. She placed her suitcase on the ground from the bed.

"Do you really need that much stuff for five days?"

She looked up and smiled making her way around the bed before responding, "Yes, I do."

Roman shook his head in disapproval as she wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. "I'm really excited to go, but I'll miss you."

"And I'll miss you too," Roman replied before leaning in to give her a kiss on the lips. Before their lips got the chance to meet, they both jumped a little when they heard the door being obnoxiously banged on.

Brie threw her head back in annoyance, "I'll get it." Roman released his hold on her and watched her and she walked towards the door which was still being banged on. She swung the door open, completely not surprised by the sight of her twin sister. "Seriously, Nicole?"

Nikki stormed in uninvited and grabbed Brie's bags. "No time to waste, we have a flight to catch." Brie stepped in front of her, blocking her way. "What?" sighed Nikki.

"That was really obnoxious," She looked at the time, "and we still have about an hour."

"We're all supposed to meet at the airport before the flight and I really don't want to be stuck in traffic. So, say your goodbyes and let's go." Nikki responded to her sister then lightly pushed her out of the way to get to the door.

Brie shook her head in disbelief at her sister. She turned around and looked at Roman who was now standing in front of her, "I can't believe she's my sister..."

"She's an interesting one." He said before leaning down to plant a kiss on his girlfriend.

"I'll call you when we land," she assured him after pulling away reluctantly from the kiss.

"Good, I'll be waiting. Now go, before your sister kills me for keeping you." He said, still holding her close to him.

She laughed, "I would, but you're still holding me..." He kissed her once more and then finally let her go. Brie headed for the door but before she could leave, she turned around to look at him, "I love you."

"I love you too, now go before she comes back."

She chuckled and finally walked out of the door, closing it behind her.

The great thing about being the WWE together was that they were able to see each other a lot and be with each other. The bad thing about it was when one of them was called to go on a tour or to an event and the other wasn't. This was the case for Roman and Brie at the moment. Brie, Nikki, the rest of the Total Divas cast, and a few other Superstars were called to travel out of the country to do some charity work and raise awareness for an important cause. It was all part of the job but Brie couldn't help but feel a little sad knowing she'd be half way around the world from him.

When she got outside she rolled her eyes at the sight of her sister leaning against the door of the taxi that was going to take them to the airport.

Nikki crossed her arms over her chest, "Any day now, Brie. Whenever you're ready."

"What is your problem?" Brie countered as she entered the taxi.

Nikki followed and closed the car door behind her as the taxi drove off. "My problem is that you don't seem to be taking this seriously, this is our job. We can't just show up late."

"We're not going to be late, Nikki."

"We would be if I didn't have to practically drag your ass out of there. How long does it take to say a simple goodbye?"

Brie rolled her eyes and turned her direction towards the window.

Nikki shook her head, "You guys are so in love, it's kind of gross."

Brie continued to ignore her sister as they drove to the airport.

* * *

Backstage during the Smackdown taping, Roman checked his phone for what felt like the 100th time to see if he had missed a call from Brie. When he didn't see any notification he threw the cell phone down onto the catering table.

"Jeez, what's wrong with you man?" Dean chuckled at the way his friend had expressed his frustrations towards the phone.

"It's nothing." Roman picked up the phone again and shoved it in his pocket.

Dean raised an eyebrow, "Doesn't look like nothin'."

"He's a teenage boy waiting by the phone for his girlfriend to call." Seth joked before receiving a cold glare from Roman causing him to slowly stopped his laughter.

"Whatever is going on with you, push it to the side because we have our match against the Wyatt Family soon." Dean put a hand on Roman's shoulder, gave him a reassuring look, then headed to the locker room to get ready. Seth looked at Roman then grinned again before following Dean.

Roman shook his head and turned to follow them into the locker room when he accidentally bumped into someone.

"Sorry, you alright?"

She nodded her head and chuckled, "No worries Roman, It's not like you speared me or anything."

"Alright, good." He smiled and started to make his way back to the locker room.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thanks for asking, and how are you?" Paige said sarcastically causing him to turn around.

He paused for a moment trying to figure out what to say."Sorry, Paige. We got a match coming up and I need to get ready for it."

She nodded, "No I get it. Good luck."

He nodded once back and turned around again and made his way to the locker room.

Paige mumbled, "unbelievable," under her breath as she turned her attention back to the table to decide what she wanted to eat from it. She grabbed a muffin from a basket and was about to put it in her mouth when she felt someone grab it out of her hand before she got the chance.

"Emma?!" She young diva said astonished as she watch her friend take a bite out of her muffin. "That was the last chocolate chip muffin."

"Sorry, just wanted to get your attention." The Australian diva smiled apologetically.

"Well you have it now." Paige leaned over and grabbed another muffin from the basket a bit disappointed that there were only plain ones left.

"Did you see my match against Alicia?" asked Emma before taking another bite out of the muffin that wasn't originally hers."

"No, sorry I missed it." Paige replied as she and Emma started walking towards the divas locker room.

"She went nuts again after I pinned her. It was quite funny actually." They entered the locker room and Paige sat on one of the benches a bit taken back by how quiet it was in there since a lot of the divas were gone. "So, any plans for tonight? We don't have any shows tomorrow so I was hoping we could go have some fun." The blonde started doing her signature dance with the muffin still in her hand, "I'm in the mood to dance tonight." She said still moving her arms side to side in front of Paige.

Paige glared at her expressing how annoyed she was, "You're always in the mood to dance, Emma."

"Yes, but I'm in the mood to _go out_ and dance."

Paige shook her head, "I don't know. I think I'd rather get some sleep tonight."

"Noooo, please!" Emma put her muffin down and grabbed Paige's hands forcing her to join her dance. "Come out with me tonight and have a good time. You can sleep after." She pleaded with the dark haired diva.

Paige pulled her hands away from Emma. "Please stop that."

Emma put her hands together and began to beg, "Please come with me, if you're not having fun just say it and we'll leave. Please." She pouted her lips hoping to change Paige's mind.

"Fine, just don't make that face again." Paige finally agreed feeling exasperated.

Emma threw her arms around Paige, who was frozen, as she hugged her tightly. "Thank you!"

Paige rolled her eyes, "Please let go of me."

Emma pulled back smiled, "You know that somewhere deep down inside, you secretly love and appreciate my hugs."

Paige shook her head in denial, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Emma smiled back excitedly before taking another bite of her muffin.

**Okay, so I know this first chapter is a bit slow but it needed to happen in order to set up the story. I promise it gets better. The next chapter will be posted shortly! ***Please leave a review* :)


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you **hotdogsaredelicious** for the review on the first chapter, I really appreciate it! I got through this chapter quickly because I'm excited to develop this! So enjoy~

* * *

Emma was practically dragging Paige through the doors of the club, "Come on, Paige!" She yelled as the music became louder and louder as they got into the building.

Paige threw her head back and shouted over the music, "Okay, I came. Can I leave now?"

Emma stopped walking and turned to face her friend. "Can you please just pretend to be a good friend just for one night, then you can go back to being... Paige."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Emma groaned, "Just have some fun, okay?" She grabbed Paige's hand and pulled her towards the bar. "Since I begged you to come, drinks are on me tonight. What do you want?"

Paige waved her hand in front of Emma's face. "Oh no thank you. I'm not drinking."

Emma gave Paige an 'are you kidding me?' look and proceeded to order a drink for her anyway.

"Emma, I'm serious." Paige pleaded.

"And so am I," the bartender placed the drinks in front of them. "Drink it. Loosen up a little."

Paige shook her head at the blonde and after exchanging a few looks, she finally gave up and decided to take a sip of her drink. "Good God, Emma, that's gross." She made a face to express her disgust.

Emma, basically chugged her drink back and waited for Paige to slowly finish hers. She again grabbed Paige's arm to drag her to the dance floor. Emma started to dance and was having a good time while Paige stood there with her face in her palm. She could not believe that she could be best friends with such a bubbly person who didn't even care the slightest bit about how obnoxious her dancing might seem.

Emma took Paige's hand again forcing her to dance as she shouted over the music, "Just dance, Paige!"

Paige rolled her eyes as she reluctantly danced with her friend.

A few moments passed and Paige decided she had had enough.

"I'm gonna get another drink," she said over the music as an excuse to get away. Emma nodded as Paige turned to leave.

She sat at the bar and put her head down, dreading that fact the she ever agreed to come. She felt someone sit next to her and recognized the person's voice who was ordering a drink causing her to lift her head up. The person looked over at her and smirked.

She smiled back sarcastically, "What are _you_ doing here?"

He shrugged before responding, "Am I not allowed to have some fun too?"

"I never said that," she defended. "It's just that there's so many other places you could've gone to tonight."

He raised an eyebrow, "You think I'm stalking you or something?"

"Again, I never said that."

"Sounds like you were implying it, sweetie."

She smiled again, "Thank you for reminding me who my least favorite member of the Shield is."

He chuckled, "You and I both know that I'm your favorite." He took another drink from his beer before smiling at her again.

"Alright, Dean. Stop giving the woman a hard time." Seth interjected.

"Thank you," said Paige while still glaring at Dean.

"What? We're just catching up." Dean defended.

"You here alone?"

Paige shook her head in response to Seth and pointed into the crowd at Emma who seemed like she was having a blast.

"I'm gonna go ahead and assume that she dragged you here." Seth chuckled at the sight of Emma.

"Is it that obvious?" Paige sat up straight in her seat after realizing that she was slouching.

Dean and Seth both nodded at the diva. She forcefully smiled brightly at them, "better?"

Dean shook his head, "You still look miserable." She grabbed his drink out of his hand and chugged it down as Seth and Dean watched in amazement.

"Impressive," Dean said to her, still in shock as she ordered another drink.

"I'd say 'thank you' but then I might give you the impression that I actually like you." she said before flashing a smile towards him.

"I know that you don't like me... You love me; everyone loves Dean Ambrose." Dean chuckled before giving her a smug look while Paige looked at him in disgust.

Seth just shook his head at his friend. She thanked the bartender, took her drink and turned around to make her way back to Emma. But before she could do so, she accidentally walked into someone causing her to spill her cold beverage all over herself.

"Great, just my luck." She said under her breath before hearing a familiar voice apologize to her over the loud music. She shook her head before looking up at the person, "No don't apologize, it was my fault."

"No, I wasn't looking where I was going. I was looking at my phone. I'm really sorry."

She looked up at the familiar face and shook her head, "Are we really arguing about who's fault this is?"

"Alright fine, it was all _your_ fault." Roman laughed.

She gave him a look and rolled her eyes at him before noticing Emma approaching her. She held out her wet t-shirt and shook it trying to stop it from sticking to her skin. "Emma, I think I'm gonna head out."

"What? Already, we just got here? And some of the other superstars and divas are here too." she pleaded with a little disappointment in her voice.

"I need to get out of these wet clothes. I'm sorry." She gave her friend a sorrow look. "It's fine, you don't have to come with me. Just stay and enjoy your night."

"No, what kind of friend would I be if I let you go alone?"

"It's fine. I promise."

"Are you sure, Paige?" Paige nodded at her to reassure her. "Alright, text me when you get back to the hotel. I'd hug you but you're kind of gross right now."

"Well we can thank him for that." She pointed at Roman who was still standing there with his hands in his pockets.

Emma greeted Roman with a smile then turned her attention back to Paige, "Don't worry, you know I'll hug you again soon." She grinned at Paige's glare then did her signature dance before retreating back to the dance floor.

Paige rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Roman. They both stood there awkwardly for a moment before Paige finally spoke up. "I'm gonna go now." She said pointing to the door.

"Did you already call a cab?" he asked with concern.

She shook her head in response, "Nope, I'm fine walking. It's only a few blocks away and it'll probably be faster than waiting." She smiled awkwardly once more, "Okay, well bye." she said before stepping past him to make her way out.

He turned around and watched her leave then ran his fingers through his hair. He sighed before following her out. She was already out the door and looked down at her soaked top again feeling disgusting. She zipped her jacket up, crossed her arms over her chest and continued walking. She could hear footsteps behind her but she ignored it. She heard someone call out her name behind her and she stopped abruptly. She slowly turned around to see Roman had been following her.

She furrowed her eyebrows, "What are you doing?"

"This wasn't the smartest idea, you know. You're a diva, someone could of spotted you and next thing you know you're surrounded by outrageous fans. Or worse..."

She turned around and continued walking as he walked beside her. "Thank you, but I don't need a bodyguard." She kept walking without looking at him, "and won't your friends be looking for you?"

He chuckled, "Trust me, I'm probably the last thing on their minds right now."

She stopped and turned towards him without saying a word. He stopped also waiting for her to say something but when she didn't he put an arm up to scratch the back of his neck.

She finally spoke up, "Whatever you're doing, just stop. I can take care of myself, I am not a child. You may turn around and go now."

He raised an eyebrow at her, then continued walking towards the hotel. She tilted her head to the side trying to wrap her brain around what was going on. She sighed then followed him. They kept walking in silence until they finally reached the hotel.

They both stepped onto the elevator and she reached towards the buttons to push the number 4 but he beat her to it and instead pushed number 7. She looked up at him again, "what are you doing?" she asked him once again feeling confused.

"You're not the only one staying in this hotel, Paige." He took his key out of his pocket to show her.

"Oh my God." Paige said suddenly while she hit her forehead with her palm.

"... I am sorry being in the same hotel as me is so traumatic for you." He said watching as she raked her fingers through her dark hair.

"No, idiot. Emma has the key." She said as she sighed again, "She confiscated it from me back at the arena because I had joked about changing my mind and not going out with her tonight."

The elevator door opened and Roman stepped out of it. He put his arm in the way to stop it from closing, "You can stay in my room until she gets back, unless you'd rather walk back for the key."

She shook her head, "No, I'd rather sit outside of our room and wait for her."

Roman looked down and chuckled, "You're kidding right?"

She shot him a look, "No, I am not kidding."

He looked around before turning his attention back to her, "Look, if I did something to make you hate me, I apologize because you clearly have an issue with me. But I am not going to let you sit outside of your hotel room for who knows how long."

They both stared at each other. It felt like a staring contest to see who would break first. He raised his eyebrows waiting for her to give up. She took a deep breath and finally stepped out of the elevator making sure to bump her shoulder into him as she walked past him then she turned around again, "I don't hate you," she corrected.

He smiled to himself feeling a bit victorious by the whole situation. He walked towards her and returned the favor by bumping into her shoulder as he walked past her to lead the way to the room.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review because it's really encouraging and will only help improve my writing! Thank you for reading, the next chapter should be posted soon. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you so much for your reviews on the last chapters. It really means a lot. Hopefully this chapter answers some of the questions you guys left in your reviews. This chapter is a bit longer than the past ones because I had to add some background detail into it. So hopefully you enjoy!**

* * *

When they got into the room, Paige took off her jacket and placed it on the nearby couch. Then she looked down at her shirt remembering why she left the club in the first place. "I need to get out of these clothes," she said to Roman, who had already turned the TV on and made himself comfortable on his bed.

He turned his head to look at her, "I'm sure Rollins has something in one of those bags you can wear."

"Why Seth's?" She asked with a confused look on her face.

"He's into tight stuff, it's more likely to fit you."

She giggled at his comment then walked over to the bags to find something to wear. She took out the first top she saw and held it out in front of her. She was pretty sure it wasn't Seth's because it was pretty big, she looked into the bag again and realized it was all Roman's stuff. She shrugged and took the shirt anyway.

While she was in the bathroom cleaning herself up, Roman took out his phone again and saw that he still hadn't received a call from Brie. He wanted to call her but he wasn't sure if he should because they were now in different time zones. He sighed and placed the phone down on the nightstand that was next to the bed.

Paige came out of the bathroom causing him to glance away from the TV and he noticed the shirt she was wearing, "That's not Seth's," he informed her.

"You sent me to the wrong me bag so I just grabbed a random shirt. I'm sure it looks better on me anyway." She responded jokingly.

She sat on the corner furthest away from him on the bed. He still had his eyes on the TV watching football highlights. She looked around, bored out of her mind and took a deep breath. A little bit more time passed and she really couldn't take it anymore. She went on all fours and quickly crawled near him close enough to grab the remote before she changed the channel.

Roman blinked away from the TV and glared at her, "What is wrong with you? I was watching that."

"Yeah, well it's boring." she countered as she changed the channel to a movie that seemed more interesting to her than football highlights.

"And this is more interesting?" he questioned.

"Yes, a lot more actually."

Roman shook his head then got off the bed to walk towards the TV.

She shouted at him, "What the hell?!" as he shut off the TV.

"I'd rather be watching nothing than sit through some chick-flick." He stood in front of the TV and smiled towards her. She attempted to turn it back on with the remote but he just shut it off, again and again.

"This is completely unfair."

Roman shrugged and gave her look that interpreted 'too bad.'

Paige groaned and threw herself back onto the bed. He sat back on the bed and they stayed there for a few moments in silence.

"I don't have an issue with you," she said finally breaking the silence.

"What?"

She sat up and looked at him. She paused for a moment before speaking again, "In the elevator, you said that I have a issue with you, I don't. I have an issue with how everything turned out."

He sighed and looked away from her knowing exactly what she was talking about but he didn't respond.

"Look, I am happy for you guys. I truly am. You know that when you guys got called up to the main roster that I was happy for you, but I wasn't expecting things to change so much." She paused and was taken back by the words that came out of her mouth because she didn't plan on saying them at all. Roman opened his mouth to speak but Paige beat him to it, "I didn't mean to say that, just forget it."

He stopped her, "No, you're right." He paused and slightly bit his bottom lip as he searched for the right words to say. "But you know how it is to be on the road now. I'm not trying to give excuses here but it's the truth."

"You guys got a push and suddenly became too busy for your old friends." Paige felt relief after finally saying what she's been wanting to say for a while now. It wasn't a question to her, it was a statement because that's how she interpreted the the whole thing.

Roman hadn't said a word back because he knew she was right and had every reason to say what she said.

* * *

Rewind back to a couple of years ago and Paige, Emma, and the Shield members had been great friends, some could even say best friends. They were like family, honestly; Paige and Dean were the ones who were always bickering back and forth and they both loved it that way. Seth had a brother/sister bond with Paige and Emma. He was very protective of them and cared deeply about them at the time. Roman was the guy that Paige felt like she could go to about anything. She thought they were best friends and he had always been open with her too. He was always the first person she went to to talk about anything and everything. They just felt very comfortable withneach other and part of her thought that maybe there was a little more to their relationship.

When the guys got called up to the main roster, there was no one happier for them than Paige and Emma, they just didn't expect that it meant that their friendships had to end.

It started with missed phone calls and not responding to text messages. Time went by and they slowly just stopped talking altogether. Paige was especially irritated when the guys had come back down to NXT for appearances or had shows nearby but didn't make an effort to get in touch with her or Emma. Though she was hurt, she never expressed it to anyone, not even to Emma who never said anything of it either.

A couple of years later, she and Emma were called up to the main roster and they decided to not care about their past because it didn't matter anymore. They were now simply coworkers, and Paige was 100% fine with that, or maybe that's just how she tried to make it seem.

* * *

Suddenly Roman's phone rang breaking the silence that was choking the both of them. He looked at it and saw that it was Brie finally calling him. He looked back at Paige before looking back at his phone and answering it. He got off the bed and walked away from Paige to speak with Brie in private.

"I am so sorry I didn't call earlier." she said on the other end of the line.

As they spoke, Roman looked over at Paige as Brie told him about the flight and what she had done all day. Fifteen minutes had passed and they were still talking while Roman occasionally glanced over at Paige. Paige had gotten up, grabbed her jacket and was heading towards the door. Roman furrowed his eyebrows as he watched her. He quickly stepped in front of the door to block her way while Brie was still talking. Paige glared up at him and pushed her hair behind her ear.

Roman had told Brie that he had to go. He reminded her that it was after 1AM where he was and that he was exhausted, though he knew very well that it was only an excuse so he could hang up to deal with Paige. He and Paige were in an intense staring contest as he exchanged "I love you"s with Brie before hanging up. He put his phone down, still blocking her way to the door.

"Please move." She said impatiently.

"Is Emma back?"

"Doesn't matter, I'd like to leave please." She countered. She attempted to step around him but he stepped in front her again only angering her more.

"Roman, please don't make me hurt you."

He raised his eyebrows, "You can't hurt me, doll."

She rolled her eyes, "I am serious, please get out of my way."

"I am not going to let you leave until Emma is back." He took her jacket out her hand causing her to throw her head back in annoyance, "Now do you really want to fight me on this?"

She clenched her teeth and forced a smile, "This has to be all kinds of illegal," she muttered before turning around and plopping herself back down onto the edge of the bed.

Roman smiled to himself a bit surprised that she gave up that easily. He walked over to her and sat next to her. He rubbed his face with his hands and mumbled, "You... are making me exhausted."

"I didn't ask for any of this." she said back to him as she turned her head to look at him. "It's not your job to protect me. I don't even know why you care so much. In fact, you don't have the right to care so much."

He squinted his eyes a bit as he looked at her, as if he was trying to read her, trying to figure what was going on in her head. He exhaled deeply before finally responding to her, "You know, I honestly thought that we'd be able to hang out, watch some TV, and have a good time while you waited for Emma. I thought it would be like the old days-"

"But it's not like the old days." she said as she cut him off abruptly during his sentence.

He stood up in frustration and paced back and forth in front of her as she watch him. He raked his fingers through his long hair and let out a deep sigh. He knew that what he, Dean, and Seth did was wrong. He knew it was wrong and had no problem admitting it, but he just felt like he needed a way to make it clear to Paige that it was never intentional. They became busy guys, in fact, the were some of the top guys in the company at the moment.

He stopped pacing and looked towards her. "I'm sorry," he finally said.

Paige shook her head, "No, don't. I was not fishing for an apology from you. You don't need to say that just to try to make me feel better-"

Roman groaned in frustration. He leaned over towards her and placed both of his hands on her shoulders and held on to them firmly. Their faces were only inches away. He looked straight into her eyes as he spoke, "Paige, I need you to listen to me."

"I am listening but-" she responded before he cut her off again.

"I am sorry. I am sorry, I am sorry, _I am sorry._ None of us wanted things to go down the way they did. None of it was intentional and you should know that. I am telling you, and I will keep telling you until you accept my apology that I _never _meant to hurt you, or Emma. But it happened, and I am sorry for that."

They stared into each others eyes and could feel the tension in between them. Paige broke the stare and looked down as she bit she her lip trying to stop the smile that was forcing its way onto her face. He let go of her shoulders and sat back down next to her and sighed. She turned and looked at him again still trying to fight the smile. He scratched his head still very confused by the actions of young diva. "Are you really not going to say anything? After all of that?"

She finally stopped fighting it and smiled at him. She was smiling because she could feel how genuine his words were and it made her happy. She felt so comfortable sitting next to him in that moment and she had no clue what she wanted to say.

He threw his head back and looked up at the ceiling as he mumbled "oh my God," under his breath feeling defeated.

She laughed and put her hands on his arm, "Alright, alright. Calm down..."

He looked back at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Thank you for apologizing. It really means a lot... and yes... I forgive you."

"Really?" He questioned her with a bit of disbelief in his voice.

She laughed again, "Yes, Roman. Really."

He smiled at her then, to Paige's surprise, wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into a tight hug. She didn't mind it though. She actually realized how much she had missed him and his hugs. She nuzzled up into his neck and wrapped her arms around him too and just felt so secure. Roman wondered to himself how on earth he could just let himself lose her before, but he knew in that moment that he couldn't lose her again.

She pulled away and smiled at him, "I was a real bitch to you before, huh?"

Roman smirked and looked down as he kept an arm around her.

"It's alright," she laughed, "you can admit it."

"I mean, if you really want me to be honest here..." she smiled brightly at him waiting for him to say it, "You were a real pain in the ass."

She covered her face with her hand and started laughing at herself. She looked up at him and shook her head, "I guess it's my turn to apologize." She bit the side of her lip.

He smiled before putting one of his hands to the side of her head and cheek to comfort her. "You, don't need to apologize to me, for anything. Ever."

She smiled at him then placed her hand on top of his as he looked at her reassuringly. They looked into each others eyes and stayed that way for what felt like forever. They both just felt so safe being with each other in that moment

Neither of them had any idea what they were feeling. She was confused with herself because she desperately wanted him lean in closer... she wanted him. She looked at him and tried to figure out what he was thinking because she didn't want to be the only one feeling what she was feeling. She felt tenseness in her stomach, she felt like there were chains holding her down because she so desperately want to lean in but she couldn't. She was scared of these feelings and Roman could see it in her face because he was feeling the exact same way. He was yelling at himself in his head because he knew that even thinking about having these feelings were wrong.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath but before she knew it Roman had given in and leaned in. They were now head to head, nose to nose, and their lips were only centimeters apart. Roman was was hoping so badly that Paige would stop all of this because he wasn't sure if he could do it and he was mad at himself for it. She swallowed hard and with her eyes still closed she hesitated a bit before slowly closing the small gap that was in between their lips.

* * *

**Whoa okay, so everyone knew that ^ was coming. I tried to not make this _cliche_, I tried so hard but I don't know. Let me know what you guys think by leaving a review, please and thank you! They really help :)**


	4. Chapter 4

_Why am I doing this?_

_How did this happen?... _

_Why does it feel so right?_

Paige's mind was racing and it felt like it was going to explode but Roman was just lost in the moment. It felt like it was just them two in the world and nothing else mattered. As he laid on top of her kissing her passionately, there was nothing else going on in his head. Except, all of it felt too familiar, like they've been in this exact moment before. They soon realized that they had, except back then it wasn't this wrong. Paige started to remember the first night their lips met as his hand explored the side of her body.

This was before Brie was even in the picture. They were laughing and talking in his apartment before he had made the first move. She had always thought that there was something more to their relationship but she was never completely sure until he had kissed her. They would've done a whole lot more than kissing if Dean hadn't interrupted them. They were both sure that he hadn't seen anything because as soon as they heard the door open they both stopped abruptly and sat up while trying to make it seem like nothing was going on. Dean never questioned them so they both came to the conclusion that he didn't see anything. Roman and Paige never talked about it again and went on pretending that it never happened because they didn't want to complicate things. A few weeks later, the guys got the news that they would be called up, which later on led to the demise of their friendship.

Paige was pulled away from her thoughts after realizing Roman had stopped kissing her and proceeded to pull his shirt off over his head. She couldn't help but stare at his chest, she was mesmerized by his tribal tattoo. She placed her hand on his chest and began tracing the patterns of the tattoo with her fingers. He placed his hand on top of hers stopping her in her tracks before leaning down towards her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he began to kiss her again before making his way down to her neck.

She could feel him start to tug at the shirt she was wearing (which was in fact his.) She slightly raised her body off of the bed in order to help him remove the shirt before he made his way back to kissing her neck. She was breathing heavily as she felt the kisses make their way down to her chest. She had lost her fingers in his hair as his hand slid under her so he could unclasp her bra.

He suddenly felt her tug at his hair causing him to put his head up and look at her, directing his attention away from undoing her bra.

Her breathing was still heavy and she said, almost in a whisper, "Stop."

He removed his hand from under her still looking into her eyes as she released his hair then put her hand on his chest to gently push him away from her. He sat up on his knees, still on top of her, as he looked down at her. It was as if he was waiting for her to say it again to make sure he heard her clearly. She rubbed her face with both of her hands before quietly saying, "I can't let you do this. We have to stop."

He took a deep breath and removed himself from on top of her. He sat with his back turned to her then ran his fingers through his hair as reality hit him. He felt like scum, like he was the worst person on the planet for even letting things get that far.

She sat up as she grabbed the shirt she was wearing before and she put it back on. She got off the bed and looked at him while his back was still turned to her.

"I really think I should leave now..." she said, still speaking softly.

He rested his head in his hands as he thought to himself. A moment later he finally turned to look at her. "I told you earlier that I wasn't going to let you go until Emma comes back to open the door for you."

"I'll call her." she responded quickly.

He sighed, "No, don't ruin her night. Just... stay." he said almost desperately because he really didn't want her to go.

She thought to herself for a minute before responding with a nod. "Okay..." she said. "I'll just wait over there. On the couch." She pointed to the other side of the room behind her with her thumb before turning around. He rubbed his forehead with his hand and watched her as she sat herself down on the couch and they remained silent.

* * *

It was past 4am and Seth slowly turned the doorknob before entering the room because he wanted to make sure he was quiet in case Roman was in there sleeping. He walked in and quietly closed the door behind him. He turned around and stopped at the sight of Paige asleep on the couch. He looked over to Roman's bed to see that he was sleeping also. He shrugged then took his phone and keys out of his pocket and reached over to place them on table in front the couch that Paige was sleeping on. He accidentally let them slip out of his hand causing them to fall onto the table, causing a ruckus.

"Shit" he said under his breath as he looked at Paige who had started tossing and turning.

She rubbed her eyes before opening them to see Seth standing in front of her with an 'oh shit' look on his face. "Sorry," he whispered.

She rubbed her eyes again before feeling her phone buzz under her. She sat up and picked it up to see that she had missed five phone calls and had seven new text messages. She looked at the last message and read,

_I swear to god if ur ok I will hurt you for making me this worried_

She took a deep breath before responding to Emma's text,

_I'm ok, sorry_

She looked up at Seth who was still standing in front of her.

"Um..." he said. "Sorry for waking you..."

"It's fine." She looked over at Roman who was still sound asleep.

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he walked around the table then sat on it in front of her.

"I was locked out of my room. Emma has my key." she answered with a tired voice. "But she's back now so, I'm gonna head out now." They both stood up and he led her to the door. "Have you seen my jacket?" she asked as she scanned the room.

He shook his head in response. She sighed remembering that Roman had taken it away from her but she couldn't remember where he placed it.

"If I see it I'll let you know," he assured her. "I'll ask Roman when he wakes up."

She took a deep breath before answering him, "Okay." She forced a smile. "Thanks." She reached for the doorknob and opened it then made her way out.

"Hey," Seth said causing her to turn around. "Take care of yourself, alright?"

She smiled then nodded. He smiled back as she turned around and made her way down the hall way. He closed the door then walked over to the couch before throwing himself onto it. Only seconds passed before he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Four days had passed by and neither Roman or Paige had said a word about what happened that night. They had not seen or spoken to each other either. They had a house show today and Paige was nervous because she knew she would probably see him backstage. When she closed her eyes at night, she couldn't fall asleep because all she could think about was what almost happened that night. Part of her was mad at herself for stopping, and the other part was pissed because she let it happen in the first place.

"Are you pumped? I'm pumped!"

Emma's voice snapped Paige out of her thoughts. "Yeah..." Paige responded as she bent over to lace up her boots.

"Are you okay?"

Paige looked up at her bubbly friend. "Of course, why?"

Emma brushed her hair behind her ear. "I don't know, you seem really... distant lately. You're sure you're fine?"

Paige forced a smile, "Yes. Now let's go kick some ass." she said as she stood up.

Emma smiled as they walked out of the locker room. They had a tag team match against AJ and Alicia Fox and they talked strategies as they made their way down the hall of the arena.

"After we win you have to celebrate with me and do my dance." Emma told her as they walked. Emma started doing her signature dance while Paige laughed.

"No way." Paige said as she continued to laugh at how ridiculous her blonde friend looked. She suddenly stopped laughing when she spotted The Shield members talking through a crowd of other superstars and divas.

"Paige?" Emma waved her hand in front of Paige's face snapping her back to reality.

"Alright, ladies. Your match is in 5." said the voice of one of the WWE's management.

Paige and Emma nodded at the man before he walked over to where AJ and Alicia were to tell them the same information.

Paige suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and was startled.

"Hey." The person said as he smiled at Paige and Emma.

Emma waved at the person and Paige released the air she was holding in her lungs when she realized it was Seth. "You alright?" he said to her with a look of concern on his face. "You look like you're gonna be sick."

Paige nodded, "I'm fine guys, really."

"Okay," he said as he crossed his arms over her chest. "Listen, the guys and I were talking. We were wondering if you two wanted to do something sometime?"

Emma furrowed her eyebrows a bit shocked and confused at the same time. "Seriously?" she asked. It had been so long since they all hung out together so she was a bit surprised by this.

He nodded to her in response.

Emma looked at Paige to get her input but Paige was in her own world. She was staring at Roman. He turned around and they suddenly locked eyes. She felt her stomach tighten. Emma looked back at Seth and nodded, "Okay. Sounds good."

She heard Alicia's music in the background and realized it was time to go out to the ring. "That's our cue." she said.

Seth nodded and wished them luck as he stepped out of their way but Paige didn't move. Emma grabbed her arm and pulled her out of her daze. Paige finally realized what was happening and quickly followed Emma to the curtains before her music began signaling that it was time for her and Emma to make their way to the ring.

* * *

Emma could tell that Paige's head was not in the match at all. It was really sloppy and she was getting a bit frustrated with her. Paige threw AJ into the turnbuckles in the corner where Emma was standing. She attempted to get AJ onto the top rope and succeeded. Paige adjusted herself to get ready to do a suplex off the top rope but accidentally slipped causing both her and AJ to fall awkwardly into the ring. AJ landed on her arm and it looked as if she was in pain. The crowd stood to their feet as the referee rushed over to check on both Divas. Emma shook her head feeling very frustrated before leaning over to tag herself into the mach. AJ held her arm in pain as Emma went for the pin to end the match quickly in case there was a serious injury. The referee counted the pin before Emma's music played and the crowd cheered. She looked over at Paige who had already exited the ring. Paige stood on the ramp staring into the ring and pushed her hair out of her face in disbelief at what she just did as Emma stared back. Alicia and the referee were busy aiding AJ and making sure she was okay. Paige shook her head and quickly made her way backstage. She was angry and frustrated with herself because she knew that what just happened in the ring was 100% her fault because her mind wouldn't focus on the match. All she wanted to know was that AJ was okay.

She entered the women's locker room and was thankful that it was empty. She stood against the wall and slid down so that she was now sitting on the ground. She brought her knees up against her body and hugged them as her mind continued racing. She wondered to herself if Roman was affected by this too or why she was even bothered by it at all. A week ago she didn't even care about him... okay she did but it wasn't like this. She felt guilty knowing how much he and Brie love each other, but part of her was still wishing she didn't stop him that night. She was angry at herself for it all. She was angry at herself for letting herself make the same mistake twice. The difference between now and the first time was that now, she was the cold-hearted bitch that made a man cheat on his girlfriend. And what was worse what that she couldn't stop thinking about him. She buried her face into her knees, and took a deep breath. She heard the door open and shut but she didn't look up. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Paige, AJ's fine. She probably sprained something, but she'll be fine." Emma informed her. "But... what was that out there?"

Paige didn't respond because even she didn't know what that was. Emma knelt down next to her. "Whatever it is, you can tell me." she assured her. But Paige still didn't respond. Emma looked around then sighed. She wrapped her arms around the dark haired diva and just hugged her. Normally Paige would tell her to get off of her but this time she didn't. She actually needed the hug more than Emma would ever know.

* * *

**Thank you for the reviews on the last chapters! It really means a lot. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I noticed that I focused a lot on Paige and Roman lately so I will definitely incorporate others more in the next chapters and hopefully start developing other couples :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**I hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

It was now Monday and Brie had returned the night before. She and Roman hadn't left each others' side since. They were already at the arena that would be hosting tonight's Raw but the show wouldn't be starting for another hour or so. Nikki, Brie, and Roman were sitting at a table near catering and eating. Brie was seated right next to Roman as Nikki sat across from them. She had her arm wrapped around his as she finished telling him about the trip.

"So, what did you do all week?" she asked him before taking a sip of her water.

Roman shrugged then smirked at her, "Thought about you." he told her with his deep voice, knowing that it would make her happy.

She smiled at him brightly before placing her hand on the side of his face to pull him into a quick kiss.

"Ew guys, seriously, get a room." Nikki scoffed.

Brie turned her attention away from Roman and shot Nikki a look. "You'd think spending a week doing good for the less fortunate would somehow turn you into a nicer, better person. Yet here you are."

Nikki furrowed her eyebrows, "I am a nice person."

Brie gave her look that read 'yeah right' as Dean and Seth walked over and took a seat.

Nikki looked over at them, "You think I'm a nice person, right?" she asked.

The guys looked at each other before looking back at her.

"Uh... well..." Seth said causing Nikki to glare at him.

"And by 'uh, well' he obviously means no." Brie said pridefully.

Seth rubbed his face with his hand suddenly regretting walking over to the table as Dean just sat there and chuckled with that smug look of his. He looked around and spotted Emma and Paige heading towards the catering table so he called out Emma's name hoping to get their attention.

Emma looked for the voice that called her and waved when she spotted Seth. He motioned for them to come over and as Emma started walking she felt Paige pull at her arm. "What?" The Aussie asked as she turned to look at Paige.

"What are you doing?" she asked trying to sound as normal as possible.

"Well I _was_ walking" Emma responded. Paige looked over at the table and saw Seth, Dean, and Nikki looking over at her and Emma while Roman and Brie's backs were facing them. Paige directed her attention back to Emma and sighed.

"Look, I know you're probably still upset over everything, but clearly the guys are making an effort here. I don't see why we can't all be on good terms." She looked at Paige and gave her a reassuring smile. Paige knew Emma was right, but that wasn't the reason why she didn't want to go over there. She looked back at Roman and Brie, then nodded at Emma.

"Okay, you're right." she said, only because she didn't want to have to explain anything to Emma.

Emma smiled and they both started walking towards the table that was being occupied by the twins and the Shield members. When they arrived at the table, Paige forced a smile towards everyone except for Roman. They locked eyes for a brief moment but she quickly turned her attention to Seth who was talking to Emma.

"Do you two wanna grab some drinks after the show?" he asked. Emma pushed her hair out of her face as she turned to look at Paige.

Paige smiled at Seth, "Oh, no thanks." she said.

"What about you, Blondie?" Dean asked as he leaned against the table with his arms crossed on it.

"Yeah, sure." Emma responded.

"So Paige, I heard you and AJ took a nasty spill in the ring the other day. It's a good thing it wasn't on live television." Nikki said smiling at Paige.

Paige forced a smile feeling a bit embarrassed, "Yeah, good thing." She brushed her dark hair behind her ear feeling as awkward as ever. She looked over at Brie who had her head rested on Roman's shoulder with her arm still wrapped around his and suddenly felt pain in her chest from all the guilt. She had tuned out the conversation that was going on and began thinking about what _almost _happened the week before with Roman. She looked at Roman and observed how normal he looked, as if there was absolutely nothing bothering him. It did make her a bit mad seeing how he could just go on as if nothing happened, how he could look Brie in the eyes and not show any remorse. She didn't realize it but she shook her head with the frustration written all over her face.

"Jeez, lady. You look scarier than usual. I thought that was impossible."

She quickly turned her attention to Dean and raised and eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

He shrugged, "You look like you're ready to claw someone's eyes out. Better not be mine."

She smiled sarcastically, "Dean, if I wanted to claw your eyes out I'd do it already."

Emma giggled to herself because it made her happy to see Dean and Paige bickering again; it reminded her of the old days.

"You think that's funny, Blondie?" He looked up at her giving her a smug smile.

"Actually, I do, _Hairline_." Everyone but Dean tried to contain their laughter as Dean furrowed his eyebrows.

"What does that mean?" He asked her with not a bit of amusement in his voice.

She smiled, "Sorry, I thought we were using a significant feature as a nickname... I'm blonde," She pointed to her hair, "and one of your significant features is your _awesome_ hairline." She responded with sarcasm in her voice.

"Very funny." Dean said, still not amused. Emma shot a bright smile towards him.

"Wow, finally someone who can shut up Ambrose. You should stick around more often." Nikki said smirking at Emma. Dean gave Nikki a "not impressed" look before getting up. He looked at Emma once more, then forced a very sarcastic smiled at her before walking away from the group.

"I think you hurt his feelings." Seth chuckled.

Emma shrugged feeling pretty good about herself.

Paige glanced at Roman because she could feel him looking at her but when she did he looked away and cleared his throat. Could this get anymore awkward for her? She took a deep breath trying to think of a way to escape. Thankfully, Brie and Nikki stood up and announced that they had to get ready for the show, causing everyone else to agree as they realized that Raw would be going on air soon.

* * *

Emma, Paige, and some other superstars and divas were standing in front of the monitor watching the main event of Raw backstage, which The Shield were involved in. Though she and the guys weren't that close anymore, Emma always watched their matches. She was actually really proud of them and how much they had grown since their NXT days. She turned her attention away from the match and to Paige who didn't seem like she was into it at all.

"Hey," she said grabbing Paige's attention. "Are you sure you don't want to come out tonight with the guys?"

Paige nodded, "I'm 100% positive." she assured Emma.

Emma slightly shrugged then turned her attention back to the TV to see The Shield celebrating after winning their match. The camera zoomed in on their fists as the show ended.

When the guys walked through the curtains and entered the backstage area Brie and Nikki were there, ready to congratulate them. Paige watched from a distance as Brie threw her arms around Roman.

"You did so well! That spear always looks so perfect" she said into his ear as they hugged. He pulled away and smiled before giving her a quick peck on the lips.

"I have a feeling he'll be doing a lot more spearing tonight." Nikki joked.

"Nicole!" Brie scolded as Nikki gave her an innocent smile in return.

"There's a lot worse things I could've said-" Nikki responded as Seth put an arm around her shoulder and covered her mouth with his hand playfully.

"Alright, let's keep it PG, Nikki." He laughed.

She removed his hand from her mouth as they laughed. Brie looked at her sister and laughed to herself still wondering how on earth they could both be related, let alone _twins_.

* * *

It was already past midnight and Dean, Seth, Nikki, and Emma had left the arena to go to a local bar. They weren't planning on staying very long though because they had over a three hour drive the next day for Smackdown. They were sitting in an isolated lounge area in the corner of the bar and Nikki had already downed a few strong drinks, pretty quickly, much to everyone's surprise.

"I can't believe Brie and Roman ditched. I guess I was right about the spearing." She laughed before taking another sip from her fourth alcoholic beverage of the night.

"That's the last thing I want to visualize in my head." Dean said giving her a look of disgust.

"What? You're saying you don't want to visualize Brie and Roman's _hot, steamy, noisy, back scratching, hair pulling-_" she said sounding as sexual as possible before Dean cut her off.

"Alright! God, Woman, are you always this vile?" Dean asked as Emma and Seth laughed at his annoyance.

"No, this is just Nikki after a few drinks." Seth commented as she finished her drink then smirked at him.

Nikki shrugged then stood up and left the area they were seated in to go get another drink. Seth looked at Emma and Dean wondering if any of them were as worried about her drinking as he was, but when neither of them showed concern, he got up and followed her over to the bar.

Dean looked around the area and scratched his arm while Emma took a sip of her drink.

"It's a little weird seeing you without your other half." He said to her trying to start up a conversation.

She shrugged as she put her cup down, "She wanted to stay in tonight, I guess."

He nodded then a moment passed and it was obvious that the conversation wasn't going anywhere. He cleared his throat before consuming more of his drink.

"Oh! I saw your match tonight. You guys did really well as usual. It's amazing how far you guys have come." The Australian said happily.

He smiled with a bit of surprise on his face, "You still watch our matches?"

She slightly tilted her head to the side, "I always do..."

Since they had not been that close anymore, Dean didn't think she would still care as much as she did then; back then she was their biggest supporter.

"I mean, just because we're not really friends anymore doesn't mean that I don't acknowledge you." She said when she noticed his surprise.

"Emma, we're not friends? That's news to me, _I_ thought we were." He joked.

She raised an eyebrow, "So you do remember my name?" she joked back.

He nodded, "Could never forget it, Blondie." He smiled.

"Well that's good to know, Hairline." She took another sip of her drink while smiling to herself as she saw his smile fade.

"Alright, I'm gonna need you to stop calling me that." He said with an unamused face.

She put her hands up, "Okay, okay. But it isn't fair if you have a nickname for me and I don't have one for you."

"Then come up with one... a better one." He made sure to emphasize the word _better_.

She thought for a second. "Okay. But you don't get to chose your nickname, I didn't get to choose mine so it's only fair... _Dimples_."

"Dimples? Really?" he said as he chuckled. "That's all you got?"

"Hey, I think it suites you really well." She informed him as they both laughed.

When they stopped laughing, Dean thought to himself for a moment before turning his attention to look at her again. "You might not believe me, but I always watch your matches too. And they're good." He told her with his tone now more serious than before. "And it may not seem like it because of our lack of communication these days, but I do acknowledge you too, always will." He turned away from her and finished the last of his drink. Emma blushed a bit as she sat there and smiled, not sure what to say because it was so rare to hear things like that come out Dean's mouth. She just smiled because she didn't know what she could say that didn't make her seem too surprised by his sincerity.

* * *

Meanwhile, Seth had followed Nikki to the bar out of concern. Nikki was talking to the bartender about what he might recommend her to try this time. "Oooh, the Zombie Cocktail? Sounds wild, I'll have that." She told him. As the bartender made her drink she smiled at Seth who was now standing beside her.

"Nikki, you alright tonight?" He asked a bit concerned because this was her fifth very alcoholic beverage of the night. It wasn't like she was just drinking beers or wine coolers, she was going for the hard stuff tonight and was drinking at a very fast pace; he could see it start to take affect on her. Nikki was headed for Brie Mode. She nodded in response to him as she watched the bartender mix her drink.

"You don't think you should slow down a bit?..." he asked her.

"I'm just having a good time." she turned to look at him and grinned.

Seth scratched his head trying to figure what to say to her.

"That's good and all, but it's Monday... do you really want to travel and wrestle with a hangover tomorrow?"

She looked at the time on her phone, "Actually it's Tuesday, Rollins." she put her phone up to his face. He took her wrist in his hand and moved the cell phone out of his face.

"That's not the point, Nikki."

The bartender handed Nikki her drink as she thanked and tipped him. She turned her attention back to Seth and took a sip of her drink. She made a face, "Wow that's strong." she said before drinking more of it.

He took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead with his hand.

"Relax, Rollins. You're not my father." she told him starting to slur her words a bit.

She kept drinking despite Seth's expression of concern until she was done. She put the glass down and smiled at him. "That was amazing, you have to have one."

She leaned over the bar top ready to get the bartender's attention but Seth stopped her.

"No I'm good," he informed her

She looked back at him and shrugged, "Fine, I'll have it then."

He was now getting really frustrated with her so he took her arm to stop her from leaning over the bar top, "I think you should call it a night now."

She looked at him feeling irritated, "Let go of me, Seth."

Emma and Dean had made their way over to them to get themselves another drink, this being only Emma's second, and Dean's third beer.

"Whoa, what's going on here?" She asked the both of them.

"Tell him to leave me alone. I'm not a kid, I know my limits."

"That's not the point, you're clearly too intoxicated to realize what the consequences of this will be for you tomorrow." He said trying to put it into her head.

"I'm not intoxicated." She said defending herself. She leaned against him and held both sides of his unshaven face with her palms, "I think you need to lighten up, Rollins."

Seth gave Dean a 'help me' look but he just shrugged.

Emma looked at Dean then back to Seth because she really didn't know what to do either. This was typical Seth to her, though; the caring guy who was always protective of the ladies in his life.

Seth sighed and took both of her hands in his to remove them from his face. "I think we should all call it a night. Gotta wake up early anyways." He said hoping Dean and Emma would go along with his excuse to get Nikki to leave. Emma and Dean nodded in agreement as Nikki wrapped her arms around Seth's upper body. Dean smirked at the exasperation on Seth's face. Seth shook his head and led Nikki out of the bar as Emma and Dean followed.

* * *

Roman was laying in bed with Brie, she had fallen asleep with her head rested on his bare chest and her arm around him. They were snuggled up together and Roman was running his fingers through her hair as she slept. Though he was enjoying this moment with her, there was something that he couldn't push out of his head; Paige. Her raven hair. Her independent, ambitious, and fierce attitude. The piercing on the side of her lip that he could feel against his skin when he was kissing her. That accent of hers that he always adored. He smiled thinking about all the parts and characteristics of her that made his heart race a little faster just thinking about them. It's not like he wanted to be with her intimately or anything, he just wanted her in his life, _or so told himself_. He needed to get her to talk to him again because he couldn't stand feeling like she was avoiding him like the plague. Then again, he also didn't make any effort to talk to her himself... He looked over at his phone that was charging on the nightstand near the bed. He leaned over slowly to grab it, trying not to wake Brie. When he finally got a hold of his phone, a voice in his head was telling him to text Paige. He tried to fight the urge but he couldn't. He looked at the time and it was getting close to 2AM. He thought for a moment trying to talking himself out of doing it. He sighed and gave up. He looked down at Brie to make sure she was still asleep. With his free hand (the other was around Brie), he started starting typing his message. When he was done, he paused for a moment telling himself this was his last chance to back out, then he quickly pressed 'send.' He put the phone down and took a deep breath already regretting it.

* * *

Dean and Emma had parted ways and went back to their hotel rooms leaving Seth to take care of Nikki himself. It's not like Emma was being mean by not helping or anything, she knew Seth could handle it himself because well... he's Seth. Dean just really didn't care all that much and knew there was no need for him to get involved.

Seth walked Nikki to her room, when they arrived at her door she fumbled with her keys a bit before unlocking it. She opened the door a little but then looked back at Seth and let it close again.

"You ruined my night, you know."

Seth rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well you should be thanking me."

She paused before speaking again. "Do you really think I'm not a nice person." she asked him curiously.

Seth smirked as he looked away from her, "I never said you weren't a nice person, Nicole. You just, can be little straight-forward sometimes, that's not a bad thing."

She smiled at him. She gently grasped the back of his neck with her hand and pulled him down into a steamy kiss. Seth's eyes widened as he was taken by surprise. He did kiss back, though, to his surprise again. When she finally pulled away from wrestling with his tongue she grinned at the surprised look on his.

"How straight-forward was that?"

Seth didn't say anything, he was still trying to wrap his head around what just happened. He had never really seen Nikki as anything more than a good friend and that only happened because her twin sister was dating one of his best friends. He'd be lying if he said he was never attracted to her, he _did_ catch him self staring at her curves on more than one occasion... She pulled him in again and this time he wrapped his arms around her body. He ended up pushing her back against the door as he leaned in against her body. She had her fingers lost in his two-toned hair as they continued, _this was definitely not PG._ They finally pulled away for air briefly. Seth leaned in again but she started talking,

"Why don't you come inside?" she said before wrapping her lips around his again. Part of Seth wanted to, he was so ready to but he couldn't. He knew it was completely wrong and out of the question because Nikki was clearly intoxicated a bit and he knew that her usual judgment wasn't at 100%. He believed that if he went in there with her, it would be him taking advantage of a woman and he would never do that. He pulled away again. His eyes were focused on her lips as she slightly bit down on the bottom one.

He swallowed down hard before finally answering her question. "As much as I would love to go in there with you tonight," she smiled at him seductively causing him to lose his train of thought. He cleared his throat, "uh... I can't." He finally said.

"Why not?" she looked at him, her eyes practically begging for him.

He released the air that was in his lungs and answered her question. "We have a long day tomorrow. I need some rest and so do you."

"We can rest together." she told him softly.

He shook his head, "I'm sorry, I can't." He told her hoping she wouldn't take it the wrong way and be offended.

She sighed and released her hold on him then removed his hands from her body and shrugged. "Whatever you say, Rollins."

He ran his fingers through his hair as she turned to open the door. She walked in then started to push the door close when he suddenly stopped it with his hand. She looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. He licked his bottom lip and smiled at her, "Goodnight, Nicole."

She tried to hold back the huge smile that was going to creep up on her face by biting her bottom lip again. The look on his face was making Nikki feel all types of things, and she wasn't sure if it was caused by the alcohol or not. "Goodnight, Rollins." She let out a lessened version of the smile that was making it's way on her face before closing the door.

Seth turned around to leave with a grin on his face. He shook his head as he said under his breath,

"What the hell just happened?"

* * *

**Phew, so glad I was able to find a way to make this chapter work; I struggled with it. There's a lot of filler stuff in here because it was the only way I could get the story to progress. I hope you enjoyed! _Reviews are my inspiration! :)_**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you guys so much for the reviews on the previous chapters! I really appreciate it!**

**Enjoy!~**

* * *

Tuesday morning had arrived and everyone was up and getting ready for their three hour drive to the next stop for the Smackdown taping. It was nearly 11:30am, Brie and Roman had already been awake for a couple of hours. They had already worked out together and grabbed some breakfast at a local diner. They were now back at their hotel getting their things packed and ready to go. Roman had been checking his phone nonstop, when Brie wasn't paying attention, to see if Paige had replied to his text message yet, but there was nothing.

_She had to have seen it already, she should be awake by now. Maybe it didn't go through. No, it would tell me that it failed to send. Is she really ignoring it. _

These were some of the thoughts that were repeating themselves in his head all morning. He sighed then decided he was going to call her and see if she was really ignoring him because he couldn't handle the anxiety this was causing him. If she did answer, he really had no clue what he would say to her, he had a gut feeling that she wouldn't though. He walked passed Brie, phone in hand, and walked into the bathroom so he could be in private in case she answered. He looked down at his phone and took a deep breath. He read the text message he had sent her the night before and ran his fingers through his hair.

_I'm sorry about what happened, it was my fault and I shouldn't have let it get that far We need to talk about this, please._

He read the text again then placed the called and raised the phone to his ear as it rang. He crossed his free arm across his body and paced around the bathroom as the phone rang, and rang, and rang.

* * *

"I drove last time, it's your turn." Paige told Emma as she zipped up her suitcase.

Emma turned to her and furrowed her eyebrows, "What? No way. I had to take over after like an hour last time because you were 'tired.' I drove the three hours with no complaint. It's your turn."

Paige pouted her lips, "You know I hate driving for a long time."

Emma shook her head and gave her stern look, "I love you, but I'm not doing it."

After more begging, Emma finally caved in a bit. "Okay, let's rock, paper, scissors it." The bubbly diva said holding out her fist.

"What?" Paige gave her an 'are you kidding me look.' Emma grinned and nodded her head. Paige groaned and held out her fist.

"Rock, paper-" they were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Paige's cell phone ringing. Emma turned around and picked up the phone to hand to Paige since it was closer to her. As she picked it up, she glanced down at it, "It's Roman..." she told Paige. Paige quickly grabbed the phone out of Emma's hand and hit 'ignore.' "You're not going to answer it?" she asked.

Paige looked up from her phone at Emma and smiled, "Nope. It's not important." she said quickly before walking away.

Emma followed her as she left the room. "Paige, seriously, you're going to have to let go of this grudge against them sooner or later, you know." She assumed that the reason why Paige ignored the call was because she was still upset over their friendship's downfall with the Shield members.

Paige stopped walking and turned to look at Emma. "I'm not holding a grudge." she informed her.

"Then why did you ignore the call?"

Paige looked away from Emma as she tried to come up with an excuse.

"It's okay that you're upset because, I agree, the way they handled things was wrong but they are trying to make things better. I can tell. So why don't you let them?" She tilted her head to the side as she spoke to Paige, trying to make her understand where she was coming from.

Paige sighed. She wasn't upset with the guys anymore, she had gotten over that. She crossed her arms and looked at Emma. "I'm not holding a grudge." she told Emma again, this time trying to sound more believable.

Emma was confused because she could tell Paige was being honest, "Then... why did you ignore Roman's phone call?"

Paige rubbed her face wishing Emma would just drop the subject. "It's... not important." she finally told her. She could see the puzzled look on Emma's face, "I'm gonna go finish packing so we can leave." She started walking away but turned again a moment later, "And fine, I'll drive this time." she told her, trying to change the subject.

* * *

Roman sighed when heard her answering machine. He thought about leaving a message when suddenly he heard a knock on the bathroom door. He hung up the phone when he heard Brie start to speak from behind the door.

"Hey, babe, Nikki's on the phone. She's on her way over but she wants to know if you have any aspirin."

"Uh, yeah. Check in my black duffel bag."

He heard her say "okay," from behind the door and walk away. He looked at his phone again the shoved it in his pocket and left the bathroom. He came out and walked over to the bed to collect the rest of his things like his charger, headphones, etc. Brie was across the room on the floor searching through the bag for the aspirin. She couldn't find it anywhere, she was about to ask Roman but was stopped in her tracks. She found the aspirin but it was under a jacket, a female jacket to be exact. She pulled the jacket out of the bag and held it out in front of her to examine it. She didn't recognize it so she knew it didn't belong to her. She put the jacket down and slightly pursed her lips as she looked at it. She checked the pockets wondering if there would be anything in them to tell her who it might belong to. There was nothing. She stood up and held the leather jacket in her hand.

"Roman," she said grabbing his attention. He looked up at her. "Do you know who's jacket this is?"

He looked at the jacket that was held up in her hand and froze. He recognized the jacket too well and knew exactly who's it was. It was Paige's; the jacket she left in his hotel room the week before because she couldn't find it. He cleared his throat nervously as he stared at the jacket. He had found it the next morning and put it in his bag hoping he'd be able to get her alone so he could return it. He honestly had forgotten it was in there. If he told Brie it was Paige's would she think anything of it? Or could he just tell her that Paige forgot it when she was locked out of her room and stayed with _the guys_ until Emma returned? Or maybe that it was a gift for her? No, what would happen when Paige saw Brie wearing it? Or was it time to come clean to Brie?

"Well?" she said breaking him out of his thoughts. He looked back at her and scratched the back of his head.

He shrugged, "I uh, I don't know."

She slightly raised an eyebrow at him, "You don't know? But it was in your bag..."

Roman opened his mouth to speak but was cut off when he heard a knock at the door. Brie looked at him skeptically for a moment as the door was being knocked on. She finally put the jacket down and walked towards to door to open it to allow her sister to come in.

"I have all my stuff ready to go whenever you guys are. Did you find the aspirin?" She looked at Brie then to Roman and could feel that something was going on between them.

"Yeah," Brie walked back over to Roman's bag to get the aspirin and handed it to Nikki. She decided to forget about the jacket for the time being and turned her attention back to her sister. "Did you have fun last night?"

Brie handed Nikki a bottle of water and she took a sip of it as she swallowed the pain relievers before answering. "I wish. Freaking Rollins ruined my night. It was so annoying. He was treating me like I was child."

"Seth's a good guy. That's his way of showing he cares." Roman said as he dragged his and Brie's luggage to the door.

Nikki rolled her eyes at Roman for defending him. They were all ready and set to hit the road, Brie and Nikki had already left the hotel room to check out and make their way out to the rental car; Roman told them he'd catch up with them. He walked back into the bedroom and looked around for a moment before spotting the jacket that Brie asked him about laying on the floor. He picked it up and looked at it for a moment. He sighed and carried it to his bag and zipped it in there. He looked around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything else before taking his luggage and following the twins out to the car.

* * *

During the Smackdown taping, Roman, Seth, and Dean exited the men's locker room and were getting ready to head out for their segment that was coming up soon. As they were walking, Dean spotted Paige and Emma talking to some other divas in the distance.

"Blondie!" he called out causing Roman and Seth to stop walking and Emma to turn around.

When she spotted him she smiled and waved, "Hi, Dimples." Dean shook his head and chuckled. Paige turned around also as the guys made their way over. Seth pulled Paige then Emma into a quick side hug as Emma wished them good luck before their segment. As they talked and laughed, Roman looked over at Paige and noticed that she was holding her cell phone in her hand. It was obvious to him now that she did ignore his text and call. While listening to what Seth was saying, Paige looked at Roman and noticed that he had been eyeing her phone. He looked up at her when he realized that her eyes were on him. Paige shot him a quick smile, that was barely there, before turning her attention back to Seth and Dean. After a couple of minutes, the guys departed from Paige and Emma and made their way out of the backstage area for their entrance through the crowd.

* * *

Later that night, Paige was making her way back to the divas locker room to change out of her ring gear after her match against AJ. When she turned the corner into the hall way of the locker room, she accidentally walked into someone, not expecting anyone to be there.

"Sorry-" she said before looking up to realize that the person was Roman. She took a deep breath and pushed her hair out of her face.

"Can we talk, please." He had been looking for her even before her match with her jacket hidden in a bag and figured she'd head to the divas locker room eventually. So he waited, and it worked.

She shook her head, "Roman, there's nothing to talk about." She wiped away the sweat from her forehead.

He looked at her with begging eyes, "Just give me a minute, please."

Paige closed her eyes and sighed before nodding to give him the 'okay.'

He looked around, "Somewhere more private?" he asked her with his deep voice.

Paige looked around also and could see people in the distance. She looked back to Roman then walked past him to the divas locker room and he followed. She put her hand out in front of him to stop him so she could check if anyone was in there. Thankfully it was empty but she knew it wouldn't be for long. He observed his surroundings once more to make sure no one would see him entering with her and the coast was clear.

He entered after Paige and closed the door behind him. She stood in front of him and crossed her arms, waiting for him to start speaking.

"You get my text?" He asked her and she nodded, "and you didn't respond?"

"I don't have anything to say to you." She said with a harsh tone.

He took a deep breath because he now knew he was dealing with the stubborn side of Paige. He handed the bag he was hold over to her. She opened it and saw her jacket then put it down and forced a smile towards him.

"Thank you,"

He couldn't help but gaze down at her body. She was still in her wrestling gear so she had a lot of skin showing and was a bit sweaty after her match. He clenched his jaw as he tried to ignore how turned on he was by her in this moment. He rubbed his forehead trying to focus on what he was there to tell her, "Listen, Paige. I don't want things to be weird between us because of what happened."

She looked away from him because she really didn't want to have this conversation. "I know, it's fine. It was a mistake, I get it." She faked a smile towards him hoping that this would be the end of it.

Roman knew she was right, _it was a mistake _but it didn't feel like it. All week he had been thinking about her nonstop and he knew it was wrong. He also knew it was wrong that part of him wanted to make that same mistake again, _right now_.

"Is that all?" She asked him, desperately wanting the conversation to be over.

Roman swallowed hard and braced himself for what he was about to do, because he felt like he could no longer control it. He took a couple of steps closer to her and she looked up at him and furrowed her eyebrows.

She leaned back a bit, "What are you-"

He took the last step that he could before there was no more space in between them and placed his hand on the side of her face. He leaned down into her and pulled her into a deep kiss. She fought it at first but then kissed back when she realized how much she had really been longing for it all week. This wasn't Roman's plan, he just wanted to return her jacket and make sure everything was alright between them. This was _not_ supposed to happen again.

He put his hand down from her face and wrapped his arms around her small body, pulling her in even closer to his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and they embraced each other. They were so lost in the moment, they didn't care about anything but each other. Her fingers of one of her hands were now lost in his damp hair and her other hand was placed on his chest as his explored all the curves of her body. They were both lost in ecstasy and felt so much relief because they finally had what they had been desiring since the week before, or maybe even since the first night they kissed years ago.

And just like that, it was all taken away from them. They quickly pulled apart when they heard the door open. Paige covered her mouth when she saw the person's eyes widen.

"Oh my God. Um, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt... whatever _this_ is. " the person said as they quickly turned around to leave.

"AJ!" Paige called out as she went to follow her. She turned to Roman who looked like his world had just crashed down around him and gave him a sorrow look before exiting the locker room.

This was it, Brie was bound to find out now, he thought to himself. AJ was going to tell her, or tell someone else but eventually Brie was going to find out, he was sure of it and he didn't know if he could handle knowing that he broke her heart. It was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He placed both of his hands on his head and sighed as he told himself how stupid he was for letting this happen again. He quickly realized that he was still in the divas locker room and made his way to exit before anyone else found him in there.

Paige ran after AJ and caught up to her. She grabbed AJ's shoulder causing her to turn around. Paige looked around at the other superstars and divas to see if anyone was watching. When she didn't notice anyone she finally spoke in a quiet tone.

"That- that wasn't what it looked like. Please, AJ, don't tell anyone." she said with panic in her voice.

AJ shook her head, still in disbelief. "Don't worry, I'm not a gossiper. It's none of my business." She could see the relief in Paige's face and that her body was now less tense. "But, I advise you to keep that out of the workplace, Paige. It's unprofessional and it could've been anyone who walked in... including Brie. This could ruin your reputation and possibly your career here."

Paige nodded to show that she understood as AJ gave her a half smile. AJ gave her one more reassuring look before turning around leave. Paige ran her fingers through her hair as she watched AJ leave. She was really hoping AJ wouldn't say anything. She had faith in her though because she did know that AJ wasn't one to gossip, she was rarely even around the other divas unless she had to be. Paige really took AJ's advice to heart though, because she knew what the consequences could have been if it was any other diva who walked in. She rubbed her face with both hands and looked up the ceiling, wishing that none of this had even happened in the first place.

* * *

Brie and Nikki were walking out to the car with their luggage to leave the arena. Roman had decided to stay behind with the guys and told Brie he'd meet up with her at the hotel soon. He really didn't want to face her right now because he remembered that they never finished talking about Paige's jacket. He hoped he could stall a little bit longer and she'd hopefully forget about it. He also wasn't sure what was going with AJ since he hadn't seen Paige since their incident.

As Brie and Nikki were walking in the dark night, they were startled when they heard someone call Nikki's name. She stopped and turned around and watched as Seth ran over to her. She rolled her eyes at the sight of him.

"Hey, can't I talk to you for a minute." He asked her as he now stood in front of her.

She turned to Brie and gave her nod signaling that she'd meet her in the car. Brie gave Seth a smile and continued her way to the car. Nikki turned her attention back to Seth and pushed her hair behind her ear.

He put his hands in his pocket and smiled at her. "I've been trying to get you alone all night."

She raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Um, Well Dean's going out for drinks tonight, with Emma I think. I was wondering if you wanted to come by my room. Hang out for a bit?" He scratched his head waiting for her to respond.

She shook her head, "No thanks." she said as she turned away from him to leave.

He had a puzzled look on his face as he took her arm to stop her. She sighed and turned back to him again, "What, Rollins?"

He put his hand on his forehead feeling a bit embarrassed. Nikki looked up at the stars waiting for him to speak. "You don't- you don't remember last night, do you? I didn't think you were that drunk-"

She looked down back to him, "No. I remember everything perfectly fine." She titled her head to side and observed the puzzled look on his face. "What? Did I bruise your ego by turning you down?"

"I don't..."

She nodded and smirked as he paused. "Well," she put her hand up to his cheek and slightly pinched it. "Now you know how it feels, Rollins. You don't get to choose when I'm good enough for you to want me." She put her hand back down to her side again and gave him a faint smile.

She took hold of her suitcase again and turned around and started making her way back to the car, leaving him there baffled.

"Nicole," he called after her but she didn't turn around this time. "That's not why I turned you down." He said but she continued walking. He stood there at a loss and didn't bother going after her because he knew she had no desire to hear what he had to say. He put his arm up and rubbed the back of his neck as he watched her put her luggage in the trunk then enter the drivers seat of the car. He heard the car start and shook his head before turning around to make his way back into the arena.

* * *

Back in her and Paige's hotel room, Emma was sitting at the edge of her bed as she put her shoes on.

"When did you guys even make these plans." Paige asked as she watched her blonde friend getting ready to go.

Emma looked up at Paige, "You were right there when we did. Remember, before the guys had their segment?"

"Oh," Paige said as she remembered that she had accidentally tuned out part of the conversation when she noticed Roman looking at her. "So it's just going to be you and Dean?"

"It was, but I guess Seth is coming too now. You should come." She said as she stood up and put her hands on her hips.

Paige shook her head, "No, you guys go and have fun."

"Okay." Emma said as she sighed. She already knew Paige would stay in but she always asked just in case she changes her mind. Emma gave Paige a quick hug before leaving the hotel room to meet the guys in the lobby.

Paige plopped her self down on her bed and looked up to the ceiling. She started to think about that kiss she shared with Roman earlier and felt her stomach churn. She smiled a bit at the thought of it but the smile was quickly wiped off her face when she remembered AJ walking into the divas' locker room. She bit her lip nervously hoping and praying that AJ would keep her word and not tell anyone. Just then she realized that she never told Roman that AJ said she wouldn't say anything. He must of been freaking out still, she thought. She turned on her stomach and reached for her phone almost impulsively and wrote him a message.

_I talked to AJ, everything's fine_

Roman had just entered he and Brie's hotel room less than 5 minutes ago when he heard his phone signal that he had a new notification. Brie was in the shower when he came in and didn't even know he was there yet. He checked his phone and read the message and felt relief throughout his body. He texted her back without thinking much of what he was actually doing.

_Thank God. Where r u right now?_

She read the message and raised an eyebrow.

_In my hotel room..._

_He texted back hastily._

_Any way I can see u? _

She paused before replying back to his message. She was getting ready to tell him that it wasn't a good idea but stopped typing when he sent another one.

_Just to talk about everything. _

She read it and bit her lip nervously as she deleted the message she was typing before and instead typed _ok,_ and sent him her hotel name and room number.

He looked towards the bathroom and heard the shower still running. He knew that Brie didn't know that he was there yet so he looked around the room and spotted her phone laying on the bed. He licked his lips as he thought to himself before picking up his jacket and quietly exiting the hotel room. When he got outside of the hotel he took his phone out of his pocket and called Brie's phone knowing it would go to voice mail since she was in the shower. When the answering machine picked up, he left her a quick voice mail telling her that he would be going out with guys and should be back in a little bit. He hung up the phone and felt so guilt-ridden for even coming up with that plan and lie in the first place.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Paige heard a knock on the door of her hotel room. She got up and placed her hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath before opening the door. She opened it and there was Roman. She moved to side to let him in the closed the door.

"Hi," she said feeling as awkward as ever.

"Hi." He smiled charmingly at her.

She looked away from him wishing he wouldn't smile at her like that, she couldn't handle it. She crossed her arm over her chest and bit her lip nervously. This had become a new habit for her whenever she was around him or even just thinking about him. "You said you wanted to talk."

He nodded, "What happened earlier was wrong."

She looked down, "I don't even know why it happened." She informed him.

"Me neither," he said as he started slowly moving towards her.

She could feel the nerves in the pit of her stomach, "It can't happen again." she said as she watched him.

"I know," he said as he moved closer.

"We should just pretend it never happened." Her heart started to race a little faster in her chest because he was now so close that she could feel the heat radiating from his body.

"I agree." he said with a softer tone, almost a whisper.

Her breath hitched when he placed both of his hands on her hips and pulled her body against his. He clenched his jaw as he looked down into her eyes. "Please stop me," he told her.

She opened her mouth waiting for the words to come out, but they didn't. Instead she hesitated for moment but then wrapped her arm around his neck and pulled his mouth to her's, doing the exact opposite of what he told her.

* * *

**Okay, I am sooooo sorry that this chapter is so long, but I'm glad you continued reading. There was so much that I needed to fit in it. I even got rid of some parts, like Dean and Emma making plans because I realized how long it was. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, I enjoyed writing it! Especially the last few parts. Please let me know what you think because reviews are so helpful and motivational! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Enjoy!~**

The room was quiet and still and everything just seemed perfect for Paige and Roman as they laid together in her bed. They snuggled together with her head rested on his bare chest with his arm under her and one of her legs on top of his; they were very comfortable with each other. The only thing covering their bare bodies were her sheets. She traced the tattoo on his chest with her fingers as she admired it. She had always been been very fond of it and was fascinated by all the different patterns and designs it had. They laid there together like that for what felt like forever and neither of them wanted the moment to end.

Roman turned on his side to face her and she adjusted herself so that her head was now rested on his untattooed arm. She couldn't help but smiled when he started gazing into her eyes. As she stared into his gray eyes she started to realize that as much as she didn't want this moment to end, it had to because she had no clue when Emma would be back. Her smile faded and he took notice.

"What's wrong?" He asked her while still gazing into her eyes.

She slightly bit the inside of her cheek before responding, "So what happens now?"

He paused and thought for a moment and thought about Brie, about how much this would hurt her. He slightly shrugged, "I don't know."

She bit her bottom lip as she reached up and placed her hand on the side of his chiseled and bearded face. "Me neither." she told him. "I'm not sure when Emma will be back so... I think we should call it a night." she said reluctantly.

He nodded then leaned in to give her another kiss before getting up to dress himself. When he got up she could feel cool air replace his presence and she didn't like it at all. She watched as he zipped up his pants then threw on his shirt and she really wished she wasn't sharing a room with Emma so he could stay. He leaned over the bed to plant one more kiss on her lips.

"Bye," she said as he pulled away.

He gave her an alluring smile, "bye." He grabbed his jacket off the floor and made his way to the door. She watched him leave and felt her heart sink. When she finally heard the door close she threw her head back on the bed and covered her face with her pillow. She shook her head and laughed at herself because she couldn't believe the way she was feeling.

Roman stood outside her door for a moment and took a deep breath. He couldn't believe what he had just done. He couldn't believe that he actually... _cheated_ on Brie. He hated that word at the moment and didn't even want it in his head. And the entire time he was with Paige, Brie hadn't crossed his mind not once, until just now.

* * *

A few days had past and it was now the weekend. Paige and Emma had decided to go to a small local gym to workout. The gym was pretty empty, there were a few people there but it was overall quiet. Paige had been in a way better mood than usual for the last few days and Emma definitely noticed but didn't say anything of it. Paige and Emma were doing some planks when they heard familiar laughter enter the gym. Paige looked up from the ground while trying to keep her breathing steady and saw Nikki, Brie, Roman, Dean, and Seth entering the gym. _Perfect. _She thought to herself as she looked over at Emma then sat up on her knees.

"We still had ten seconds to go." Emma said as she got up also.

"Look who's here." Paige whispered and nodded over to the group's direction.

Emma smile, "Yeah, I know. I told Dean we'd be here." She turned to face them, "I didn't know he'd be bringing the Bellas with him, though." She shrugged then looked back at Paige.

They both made their way off of the floor to a standing position as Seth and Dean walked towards them. Paige peered behind them when she realized Roman wasn't coming with them and saw him talking with Brie and Nikki as they did some stretches. She didn't want to admit it but she was a bit disappointed that he wasn't even acknowledging her, or Emma for that case.

She was taken aback when she felt Seth pull her into a quick friendly hug and smiled. Seth always greeted her and Emma like this, he was truly starting to feel like a big brother to her again. When their hug ended, Paige noticed Dean smirking at her as he opened his arms wide.

"Don't I get a hug too?" He said slyly. She raised an eyebrow at him and gave him a look of disgust.

"Maybe when pigs fly." she responded jokingly.

He moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her with her arms still down at her side.

"Gross, Dean, get off of me. I will hurt you." She grumbled into his chest before attempting to shove him away. He pulled away and flashed her a wicked smile before patting her on the head. Paige crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.

"Tell me again why you told him we were here?" She asked Emma.

Emma shrugged and let out a little laugh at them. Dean put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a side hug. He didn't remove his arm and had Emma close to him as they all spoke to each other.

Emma looked around and saw Roman and the Bellas not too far away and furrowed her eyebrows realizing none of them had come over to greet her or Paige.

"Roman!" She called out to him. Dean turned his head to face her with his arm still around her and gave a look because she had shouted in his ear.

Emma gave him an apologetic face then flashed him a grin.

Roman put down his weights and made his way over to them.

"Hi," she tilted her head to the side, "Remember us?" she asked him jokingly and smiled.

Paige had her head down trying to avoid eye contact with him because she hadn't seen or spoken to him since the night they were together.

"Sorry," He said as he turned his head to look back at the Bellas briefly. "I was distracted."

Emma nodded slowly and could see the agitation in him as he turned his head once more.

"You alright, man?" Seth asked as he watched his friend.

Roman knew the reason why he was acting so strange was because now he couldn't stand near Paige without feeling some sort of sexual frustration towards her, and was trying not to make it so obvious but it clearly wasn't working.

"Yeah." Roman placed a firm hand on Seth's shoulder. "But we came here to work out, right?"

Seth nodded as Roman turned to make his way back to the weights he was using before.

Seth gave Emma and Paige a subtle shrug then went on his way to start his work out also.

Dean raised an eyebrow at Paige, "Hey Casper, why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

Paige glared at him, "Keep your nicknames between you and Emma please." she scolded him before turning away to continue her workout that was interrupted by them. Dean looked down at Emma who was still held close to him and chuckled.

* * *

About 45 minutes had passed by and they were all still working out together while occasionally starting up a conversation. Paige had kind of isolated herself from the group and was running on a treadmill with music playing in her ears.

Brie continued doing her barbell squats before starting up another conversation.

"I'm actually surprised you guys let us tag along today." She said as she brought herself up from the squat and released another breath.

"What are you talking about?" Seth questioned as he stopped what he was doing and grabbed his water bottle before plopping himself down on a nearby bench.

Brie put the barbell down slowly then grabbed her towel to wipe the sweat off her face.

"You guys always have your 'guy time' or whatever. Whether it's going out for drinks or working out." she shrugged. "Like the other night." she said referring back to Tuesday night.

Emma looked over at her, "I was there, so I guess that doesn't count as 'guy time.'" she laughed.

"Hey you ladies are always welcome to join us." Seth told them then looked at Nikki who was lifting dumbbells over her head. He took a drink of his water as he watched her movements. He was so attracted to her in that moment. She was wearing a pink nicely fitted Nike sports bra and black yoga styled workout pants. He was really enjoying his view of her body glistening from her sweat.

"Don't tell 'em that. They'll actually think we mean it." Dean said in a not so serious manner in response to Seth's statement.

Seth stopped looking at Nikki momentarily to shake his head at Dean as Roman laughed to himself.

"And besides," Seth continued, "It couldn't have been a guys night anyways. Roman wasn't even there-"

Roman abruptly let go of the handles of the chest press machine he was using causing a loud commotion as the weights dropped down on each other. Paige heard the noise and pulled one of her ear buds out of her ear before slowing down on the treadmill and turned her attention to them. He clenched his jaw and gave Seth a cold death glare, telling him to shut up with his eyes. Brie turned to look at Roman with a puzzled look on her face. Dean, Nikki, and Emma looked back and forth between Brie, Roman, and Seth feeling confused also.

"What do you mean he wasn't there?" Brie asked as she turned her attention back to Seth.

Seth, still sitting on the bench, looked up at Roman who looked like he was ready to superman punch him back to Iowa. "Uh," he licked his lips trying to figure what to say, "I um... what I meant to say was uh- you know." He paused and thought for a moment as Brie raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to clarify. "He wasn't there, as in he was, uh, too focused on you to enjoy the night." He said trying to make sure it sounded honest.

Emma looked at Dean and mouthed, "what?" feeling as confused as ever because she knew Roman wasn't there and had no idea what was going on. Dean responded to her with a shrug, notifying her that he too had no clue what was happening.

"Yeah, um, he just kept going on and on about you. His body was there, but it's like his mind wasn't, you know?" he lied, trying to save his ass from Roman's wrath.

Roman lightly shook his head and took a deep breath wishing he could put a muzzle on his two toned friend.

"Really?" Brie smiled actually buying his story.

"Definitely." Seth assured her, "He just kept saying how much he wished you were there and stuff-"

_Why can't he just shut the fuck up? _Roman thought to himself before scowling at Seth once more causing him to stop what he was saying.

Nikki observed the intimidating looks Roman was giving Seth and knew something about this wasn't right, but she kept her mouth shut.

Paige looked on nervously hoping neither Dean or Emma would say anything to spoil Seth's fabrication. She also knew that they'd be looking for an explanation from Roman and worried for him.

"That's so sweet." Brie smiled as she turned to Roman.

He forced a smile back towards her and felt all the tenseness leave his body and relief enter it.

Seth rubbed his forehead and felt like he had literally just dodged a bullet, _Roman's bullet._

Brie took a few steps closer to Roman, wrapped an arm around his neck, and planted a kiss on his cheek. She pulled away and giggled, "You're so sweaty."

Paige looked away from the couple as they showed their PDA.

As confused as Dean and Emma were, they turned their attention back to their workout.

Roman chuckled at Brie's comment and she smiled. "Guess that's what happens when you workout." he told her sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes, "I know that, Roman. I just meant, maybe you should take off your shirt. That might help." She beamed at him.

Nikki rolled her eyes at the couple and laughed.

Roman pulled his sweaty shirt over his head to take it off and handed it to Brie and smirked. She held the shirt out in front of her by pinching it with her index finger and thumb. "That's so gross." She laughed.

He laughed then pecked her on the lips before making his way to a pull up bar to continue his workout.

As Paige ran on the treadmill, she couldn't help but ogle at a shirtless Roman using his upper body strength to pull himself up and over the bar. She bit her bottom lip as she helplessly gawked at him.

_Okay, stop staring. You're making it obvious. Look away. _She thought to herself. She stopped the treadmill and took a sip of her water while sweat dripped down her face. She stepped off the machine, her breathing still heavy, and moved over to a different machine, so that she no longer had a view of Roman. Minutes had past and she was once again lost in her workout. She continued on but was startled when she felt someone rip one of her ear buds out of her ear. She turned her head to the side and saw none other than Roman watching her while leaning against the treadmill. She stopped the machine and tried to catch her breath as she looked behind her and saw Brie punching a punching bag as Nikki stood behind it to hold it in place for her. She turned her attention back to Roman who was holding out her water bottle waiting for her to take it. She looked at him suspiciously not sure why he was there as she took the bottle from him and drank from it.

"Why'd you switch machines?" he asked her as he watched her drink her water. She moved the water bottle away from her mouth and furrowed her eyebrows at him. "You weren't the only one who was enjoying their view, you know." He said to her in quiet seductive tone.

She smiled and looked down away from him as her cheeks reddened. He smirked feeling pretty good about himself for being able to do that to her. She grabbed her small towel and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"I didn't realize you saw me..." She told him as she stepped off the treadmill and stood in front of him. "I mean, I assumed you were pretending I wasn't even here."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Hey you're the one who refused to look at me when I walked over to you and Emma earlier. So I assumed the same thing." He informed her.

She crossed her arms over her chest, "You only came over to us because Emma made you." she said defensively.

"Whoa, okay. Calm down." He chuckled as he placed his hands on her arms to uncross them. She took a deep breath and looked away from him as he held her hands in his. "I don't want things to be tense or awkward between us. I want you to be able to look me in the eye, after what we did." he told her trying to keep his voice low.

She faced him again and nodded once in agreement. He smiled as he let go of her hands. "Alright, then." He started to walk past her to go back to his workout but she grabbed his arm. He turned around and looked at her again.

She shook her head as she opened her mouth to speak, "I'm sorry, but-" she paused momentarily as she released his arm. "Are we just supposed to pretend nothing happened?" she asked him feeling unsure.

"No." he shook his head. "Unless that's what you want."

She sighed not knowing how to respond. She bit her lip as she looked up at him. "It's not what I want." she finally said.

He smiled, "Great, then I'll see you tonight." he informed her almost whispering. He turned once more to walk away but Paige was clueless as to what that meant. They didn't make any plans for tonight so she didn't know what he was talking about.

"What do you mean?"

He smiled to himself before turning around again because he knew she'd ask. "Brie and Nikki are going on some shopping trip tonight with the other Total Divas. They'll be a while." He raised his eyebrows hoping she was catching on,

She looked down as a smile crept its way onto her face. "Okay." she finally gave in as she looked back up.

"I'll call you."

She nodded in response as he turned away from her again to finally leave. As he was walking he glanced over to where Brie was and automatically had a guilty conscience. What the hell was he doing? And why couldn't he stop? He passed his hand over his damp hair and exhaled deeply.

* * *

The Bella twins had switched positions so now Nikki was the one throwing punches onto the punching bag. Nikki wasn't paying any attention to what was going on around her, it was just her and this punching bag in her world at the moment. She didn't even notice when Seth walked over to Brie and asked her if he could take over. Brie nodded and moved out of the way as Seth took her spot behind the punching bag. He cleared his throat loudly, almost obnoxiously trying to get Nikki's attention. Nikki stopped and looked behind the bag. She sighed and rolled her eyes at the sight of Seth.

"Can I help you, Rollins?" She said with annoyance in her voice as she threw another hard punch, taking Seth by surprise.

"Wow, you're pretty tough." He said. She didn't respond. "Okay, um, listen, can we talk about the other night?"

"What about it?" she said with a flat tone.

"I just want you to know that, the only reason why I turned you down-" he paused as she hit the punching bag even harder than before. "Uh, it was because you weren't sober."

"What a good guy you are." She said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"I don't think I did anything wrong. I'm sorry if you took it that way."

She stopped and looked at him. "Seth, thank you for your apology but, I really don't care."

He sighed as she continued punching again. "What's it gonna take to get on your good side again?"

She thought for a moment before answering. "Was Roman really out with you guys the other night?"

He furrowed his eyebrows as she swung her arm forcefully against the bag once more. "Uh, yeah. He was." he lied.

She snickered, "Rollins, if you want to get on my good side, you're gonna need to be honest with me."

"Why does it even matter?" He asked.

"I saw the way he was looking at you. You know, you really should man up a bit. You looked like you were ready to piss yourself."

"Pfft, no I didn't." He defended himself. "And it's Roman Reigns, the powerhouse. Do you know what that guy could do to me?"

She laughed. "So are you gonna tell me why he looked like he was ready to kick your ass?"

Seth scratched his head, "I honestly don't know."

"So was he there or not?"

"Yes," he covered for his friend, not really even knowing why. "He was there."

Nikki looked at him skeptically not fully buying what he was trying to sell. She stepped away from the punching bag and took off her gloves. "Whatever you say, Rollins."

She started walking past him and he turned to follow her. "So are we alright?" he asked behind her.

She rolled her eyes and smiled, "We're alright." she assured him without turning around.

Seth stopped and smiled to himself as he watched her walk away. "Good." He said, pretty much to himself.

* * *

**Thank you for the reviews on the previous chapters, your feedback really means a lot to me! :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hi! Long chapter ahead! I got this updated so soon because my power was out for like 4 hours today and I had to sit and wait until maintenance came by to fix it. I had nothing but my laptop and phone so I decided to do some writing! Sorry it's so long. And there's kind of some mature themes in here, it's really not that bad though, just a fair warning.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

Roman was alone in he and Brie's hotel room and it was a little after 7pm. Brie had left about fifteen minutes ago with Nikki to go shopping with the other Total Divas. As much as he loved Brie, he hated that she came along with cameras for the E! Network. He didn't like them in his face and really didn't like having his relationship on television for the world to see. Thankfully for him, the cameras were only on him when Brie was around, and though it seemed like it to the audience, the cameras _weren't_ always rolling. For example, when they went to the gym earlier, none of the Total Divas cameras or producers were around, well that was because he intimidatingly told the camera men that he didn't want them to follow him and Brie to the gym. As most would after being stared down by Roman Reigns, they complied with his demands. He couldn't imagine what would happen if the cameras caught him flirting with Paige or making plans with her for tonight. He shook his head at the thought of it. He knew that when the cameras were rolling, he'd have to put on a facade and avoid showing his feelings towards Paige. _Feelings_. He was taken back when he realized he said that he had _feelings_ for Paige in his head. He exhaled deeply at the thought. But it really was obvious deep down that the feelings were there, he couldn't control himself when she was around. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her, he couldn't mask the feeling he had in his stomach earlier when she wouldn't look at him in the eye. It was clear as day to him now that he didn't just want sex from her, he was actually starting to realize that he really liked her. These feelings were stronger than they were years ago when they had their first moment. And there it was, the explanation for why he couldn't keep himself away from her. These feelings weren't new for either of them, they were simply in _hibernation_ and it seemed like they were suddenly awakened and as ferocious as ever.

His thoughts were disrupted when he heard a loud banging on the door. He looked at the time and it had only been about seven minutes since he had called Paige, there was no way she was here already. He stood up from the couch and made his way to open the door. When he did, he was greeted by the sight of his fellow Shield members, Dean and Seth. He forced himself not to roll his eyes. Before he could even invite them in, or better yet tell them to go away, Dean had already made his way in and Seth followed. The Samoan clenched his jaw tight trying to contain his frustration. Before he even said a word to them, he took out his phone and sent Paige a quick text to tell her they were over but he'd get rid of them.

He put his phone back in his pocket and looked up and saw that Dean had already raided his fridge, grabbed a beer, and made himself comfortable on the couch with his legs up on the coffee table, and Seth sat himself on the arm of the couch. He ran his fingers through his dark hair as he glared at them.

"Is there something I can do for you guys?" He asked with exasperation in his deep voice.

Seth nodded, "You can start by telling me why I lied for you earlier."

Okay this time Roman didn't stop himself from rolling his eyes. He knew this was going to come sooner or later and still hadn't come up with a false explanation.

"If you'd just kept your mouth shut in the first place, there wouldn't be a need for you to lie." His voice was full of irritation.

Seth raised an eyebrow, "I assumed you were with Brie, you know, as you told us you'd be. So I didn't know that I had a reason to _keep my mouth shut_."

Roman's jaw was now clenched down even harder as he tried to control his anger at Seth who was being a smart ass.

"Just keep your nose out of my business." He finally got himself to say.

Dean just sat there watching the whole thing as if it was a movie as he drank. He was really only there because he was a bit confused by it all, but also because he knew he'd enjoy the show. The only thing that would make this better for him would be if he had some popcorn.

"So if you weren't with Brie, then where the hell were you? Because she thought you were with us, and that's obviously not the truth." Seth was now really starting to push Roman's buttons.

He scowled at Seth as he moved closer to him. He was now hovering over Seth, who was still sitting, as he gave him the coldest glare he had ever seen in his life. Seth cleared his throat and tried to not show any fear, even though inside he knew that if Roman really wanted to, he could rip him to pieces.  
Dean watched and chuckled at Seth who was involuntarily leaning back away from Roman.

"It was just a question, man. Calm down." Seth told Roman.

"I asked you to keep your nose out of my business." Roman told him with zero amusement in his voice.

"Alright, I got it." Seth put his hands up in defeat.

"Oh come on." Dean said as he laughed. "Rollins, you should be ashamed of yourself."

Roman turned to Dean and his laughter slowly died. "I mean, I'm just saying. What could be so bad that you can't even tell us, your brothers? What? Are you planning on proposing to the chick or something?"

Roman closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He just really wanted to drag them both out of his hotel room by their neck. As much as he loved his them, they were annoying the hell out of him.

When Dean realized Roman hadn't answered he raised his eyebrows, "Oh God. You're proposing to her, aren't you? Oh shit," he said as he sat up straight and put his feet down, "Were you out making plans or ring shopping, or whatever it is you do when you propose?"

Roman squinted his eyes a bit and looked at Dean like he was the biggest idiot on the planet.

"Shit man, you know you could've told us, right? We're not gonna spoil the surprise. Well he might," he nodded over to Seth who rolled his eyes, "But I got your back man. I mean I'm not into that sappy, lovey-dovey shit but whatever you need."

Roman put a hand over his face and couldn't help but laugh to himself as he shook his head.

"I don't get it." He brought his hand back down to his side as looked at them and chuckled once more. "You don't see me minding your business." He turned to look at Seth, "Your ass has been so obviously desperate for Nikki Bella these past few days, but you don't see me questioning you." Seth opened his mouth to speak but Roman beat him to it as he turned to face Dean. "And you. Gettin' all cozy with Emma lately. You clearly have a thing for her, but once again, _I_ didn't stick my nose in _your_ business."

Dean almost choked on his beer not expecting that at all. He coughed as he put the beer bottle down on the table. Seth snickered at Dean's reaction.

Dean cleared his throat, "What are you talking about, man? I don't have a thing for Emma."

"Right," Seth said with sarcasm. "At least I can admit he was somewhat right about me." he shrugged, "I guess it's good that you don't have a thing for her then. It would never work out between you two anyway."

Dean furrowed his eyebrows, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Roman crossed his arms over his chest a bit upset with himself for sparking the conversation because he wanted to get them out, as soon as possible.

Seth shrugged once more, "I mean, Emma's the sweetest woman in the world. She's bubbly, always has a positive attitude, nicest person I know... and you know, you're Dean Ambrose. It could never work."

Dean took offense to this, "What are you saying? Emma's too good for me?"

Seth shook his head, "No, not really. I mean yes, in some ways, but what I meant was, you'd probably hurt her in the long run... because of who you are."

Now it was Dean's turn to glare at Seth. Seth had been digging himself in a pretty deep hole with his partners lately, but he really didn't think Dean would find it offensive at all but he did.

Dean never really thought he had a thing for Emma, so to say, he just liked having her around. She made him laugh, she was fun to be around, and she lit up the room. They just really had an overall good vibe. But for some reason, Seth saying those things got to him a bit, mostly because he knew it was true. He knew he was a scumbag sometimes, and that he had a history of one night stands, promising to call a girl after sex and never did, but he couldn't ever see himself doing that to Emma. He cringed at the thought of anyone ever doing that to Emma because of how kindhearted she is. He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts in his head. He tried to convince himself that he didn't have a thing for her. And wanted to make sure that he never would because he didn't ever want to be that scumbag towards her.

"Alright, can we wrap this up? You guys can debate this on your way out the door." Roman said, pulling Dean out of his thoughts.

"Wait, I know you want us out of your business, but... was he right? Are you planning on proposing to Brie?" Seth asked as he stood up.

"Get out." Roman scowled at him.

"Jeez, man." Seth said as he stepped around Roman to head towards the door. Dean stood up also and followed. Roman followed them to the door to close it behind them. As he was closing it, Dean stopped it with his hand then turned to Seth and smirked.

"He never denied it."

Roman rolled his eyes, _for the love of God,_ he thought to himself. "I'm denying it now!" He barked at them as they stepped back from the door allowing Roman to slam it shut.

* * *

A little while later, Roman was laying on his bed impatiently watching ESPN on TV to kill the time until Paige would arrive. I felt like she was taking forever and he wasn't in the best mood because Dean and Seth had wasted so much of his time, time that he could've been spending with Paige. And now they had even less time to spend together before Brie would return. He wasn't worried though because Brie always had the tendency to call him when she would be on her way back from anything to tell him all about it because she never really could wait until they were face to face. This would be especially true since she was out on the town shopping with the girls she loved, and she'd probably call to tell him all about the things she bought and what eventful things happened. He laughed to himself thinking about the conversation that they would probably have. And knowing Brie, she'd buy something for him too and if it wasn't clothes, it'd be something organic that Roman had never even heard of before.

He heard a soft knock on the door and was dragged from his thoughts. He practically jumped up off of his bed with eagerness because he was certain it was Paige this time. He pulled the door open and there she was.

"Hey," she waved. She was expecting a greeting back but instead was surprised when Roman grabbed her hip and attacked her lips with his. She didn't even get the chance to walk all the way through the door. He pulled her in closer to him so that he could shut the door behind her. Paige was not expecting this aggressiveness from him, she was in a bit of shock. He was pressing hard against her lip piercing and it wasn't the best feeling. You'd think that with Roman being such a beastly powerhouse, he would have been aggressive and dominant with her, but the first time they were together he was actually really gentle and made her feel safe and comfortable. This wasn't the case now. He had already moved his hands down to unbutton her pants and was ready to pull her shirt off. He broke his lips away from hers momentarily to pull her shirt over her head then took the opportunity to take his off also. He brought his lips back down to hers then placed both of his hands on her lower backside to lift her off the floor. She was startled by this and wrapped her legs around him for support. He started walking but she pulled her lips away from his causing him to stop. He leaned in again to continue the kiss but she pulled away again.

"Roman," she began talking. He didn't have time or patience for this. He wanted her right now. She said his name again trying to get his attention but he ignored her and began nibbling and placing soft kisses on her neck as he made his way to the bed. He laid her down gently with his body on top of hers and continued kissing her neck, then her shoulder, and made his way down to her chest. As much as she was enjoying this, something about it didn't feel right at all.

"Stop," she said firmly. He was starting to feel frustrated with her. Why was she stalling? He had so much desire for her and had been waiting for this all day. He ignored her demand and continued what he was doing. "Roman, I said stop." She placed her hand on his forehead to push and lift it off of her. He looked up at her and sighed. She lifted herself up on her elbows so she could get a better look at him. "I don't think I can do this."

He shook his head feeling as frustrated as ever before rolling himself off of her. She took a deep breath and got off of the bed and looked at him. "I'm sorry."

"Why'd you come all the way over here then?" He sat up and faced her.

She paused before speaking."I want to, I do... but I can't have sex with you on the same bed that Brie's going to be sleeping in with you later." It felt so wrong to her, of course all of this was wrong but she felt like this was completely crossing the line.

He couldn't help but chuckled at what she had just said. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. "It isn't funny." she scoffed with her accent.

Roman smiled as he stood to his feet and walked over to her. He placed his hands on her arms and uncrossed them. He noticed it was something she did when she was in defense mode. Paige rolled her eyes at him then crossed them again. He smirked and leaned in closer to her so he could whisper in her ear, "I'm gonna have to punish you for that." he said seductively in her ear.

She couldn't help but grin as her cheeks flushed. He highly respected her decision to not want to do it on his and Brie's bed, but he really couldn't resist her.

"What are we going to do?" she said as she placed her hand on the side of his face.

He thought for a moment before responding. "There's the floor..." She looked down to the carpeted floor then back up to Roman and shook her head and gave him a_ no way_ look.

"Someone's very picky." he smiled as she laughed. "Your options are the floor, the couch, against the wall, the tub," she laughed again as she shook her head. "...or the bed. I can take you anywhere, Paige. It really doesn't matter to me."

She took a deep breath then bit the side of her bottom lip that was still throbbing from his hard kiss. She shrugged then took his hand in hers and led him to the couch. I mean, this wasn't as bad as it would be if they went on the bed, right? Well no matter what, or where it was happening, it was bad but right now, neither of them cared that much.

* * *

Emma sat on her bed in her and Paige's hotel room and was bored out of her mind. This was her day off and all she did was go to the gym. She was all alone in her room and she had no idea where Paige was. She turned to look at the nightstand that was beside her bed and eyed the remote. She reached over to grab it and turned the TV on. She flipped through the channels and didn't find anything interesting. She sighed then went on Netflix to see if there was anything on there. She came across a movie that she remembered Seth telling her to checkout. He had also told Dean to check it out but he shrugged it off and told him that he wasn't into sitting around watching movies. Emma then took out her phone, she looked through her contacts and found Dean and placed the call. She wanted to see if the guys wanted to come over for a movie night like the old days. She chose to call Dean because he was the first out of the three she found in her contacts. He was labeled as _Dimples_ in her phone.

Dean and Seth had been hanging out in their hotel room not really doing much. Seth was on his laptop studying some old wrestling matches trying to increase his knowledge for the art. A restless Dean on the other hand was walking around the room, throwing a ball the size of a tennis ball up in the air to catch it and throw it back up again. He was obviously bored also. This wasn't the usual for them. They were usually pretty busy and didn't have this much downtime but their next flight wasn't until tomorrow morning and they decided to stay in for night so they'd be able to get up on time for the fight. Dean threw the ball in the air once more but failed to catch it because his cell phone started buzzing in his pocket. He looked at it and read _Blondie. _He looked up to Seth unsure if he should answer after what Seth said to him earlier. Seth looked away from his laptop when he heard the phone still going off and saw the look on Dean's face.

He chuckled, "It's Emma isn't it." Dean looked down at the phone again. "You gonna answer it or not?"

He finally accepted the phone call and brought it up to his ear.

"Hi!" he heard Emma say on the other line cheerfully.

"Hey." He brought his other hand up to the back of his neck and continued walking around as Seth watched him with a smirk on his face. "Uh, what's up?"

"Are you guys doing anything?"

"No, not really. Why?"

"I'm dying of boredom." she said jokingly. "Do you guys maybe want to come over to my room. I found that movie Seth was going on about a while ago!" He heard the smile and happiness in her voice. He really didn't care much for the movie, but he was also bored out of his mind. And how could he say no to that voice? He turned to look at Seth once more. "Yeah, I'll ask Rollins." he put the phone down momentarily. "Emma wants us to go over for a movie." This really wasn't a question, he already knew Seth would be up for it.

Seth nodded, "Alright."

Dean brought the phone back up to his ear, "We'll be over soon."

"Great!" she said excitedly into the phone. "What about Roman? Should I call him?"

Dean remembered his and Seth's encounter with Roman earlier and how he wasn't in the best mood. "I don't think he's in the mood for a movie tonight. I think he has a lot on his plate... a lot of _planning._" He smirked still sure that Roman was ready to pop the question to Brie.

Emma was unsure what he meant by that but she shrugged it off, "Okay, I guess."

She told him her hotel information before they hung up and Seth smiled at Dean smugly. Dean rolled his eyes at Seth and didn't even bother paying him any attention whatsoever. He grabbed his jacket and put it on to get ready to go.

* * *

When they had arrived to Emma and Paige's hotel room, she let them in excitedly with a big smile on her face. She was happy to be having a movie night with her boys again, she was a little disappointed that Roman and Paige weren't there but she didn't let it bring her down at all. Dean and Seth were both expecting Paige to be there. Seth asked Emma of Paige's whereabouts but Emma shrugged. He didn't linger on it though. Emma had already popped some popcorn before they arrived.

The three of them made themselves comfortable on the sofa, and Emma had turned the TV a bit towards them because it was originally facing the bed. The only light in the room were from the windows and the television. She was sitting in between the two guys but was sitting a little closer to Dean. He definitely noticed this, he had the urge to put his arm around her shoulders but stopped himself. As the movie began, Seth started talking about how awesome it was and told them that they'd love it. He was the kind of guy that liked to explain the movie to you as you watched it. This was annoying the hell out of Dean, but Emma wasn't bothered by it at all.

"Oh man, I love this part." he said as he stuffed some popcorn in his mouth.

"Are you gonna shut up and let us enjoy the movie?" Dean finally blurted.

Emma giggled. This was typical, except usually Roman cracked first, then Dean would agree causing Paige to defend Seth which usually sparked a banter between her and Dean. But Roman and Paige weren't here this time.

"Alright, sorry, man. I'll stop." Seth apologized.

Dean shook his head in annoyance. As the movie went on, Dean grew more fidgety. He was never the kind of person that could just sit through a movie. He liked to be up and moving at all times. He shifted in his seat again and started tapping his fingers on his thigh.

Emma turned to face him. "Are you alright?" she asked with concern as she placed her hand on his to stop his movements. Seth was so lost in the movie, he didn't even hear her say anything.

"Yeah, I'm good." Dean assured her. She smiled and removed her hand from his to grab some more popcorn. As the movie went on, Emma had somehow snuggled a little closer to Dean and this was making him a bit tense. She honestly didn't mean to, she just shifted in her seat a bit to change her sitting position and ended up closer to him. He remembered what Seth had told him earlier and again fought the urge to put an arm around her. This was pissing him off because earlier he was able to hold her close to him without any thought and everything was fine. But because Seth and Roman had tried to tell him that he had a thing for her, he was trying to be cautious now. And Seth's words about him being no good for stuck to him like glue.

* * *

Paige laid on top of Roman on the couch as he ran his fingers through her scalp and her raven hair while his other hand moved gently up and down her back. As her head laid on his chest, she listened to the sound of his heart beat. This was the perfect moment. She smiled thinking about it and he could feel it causing him to smile also. This was the gentleness she was seeking earlier in the night, she felt so safe with him, as if nothing could hurt her. Suddenly they heard a phone buzzing and ringing. Roman shut his eyes and sighed into her hair. She raised her head and looked up at him as the phone continued ringing and the smiles were washed off of their faces. He honestly had never been so disappointed by the sound of his phone ringing ever in his life. Paige reached down to the ground to retrieve his phone and handed it to him. He looked at it and there was Brie's name planted on the screen. He looked at Paige once more before answering it and the sound of a cheerful Brie filled his ear. Paige knew this was her cue to get ready to go so she lifted herself off of him and picked up her clothes. She grabbed his also and threw them at his head playfully. As Brie continued talking in his ear, he got up then made his way to Paige, who's back was turned to him, and wrapped his free arm around her tightly and gently bit the side of her neck as he smiled as payback for throwing the clothes at him. She covered her mouth with her hand to muffle her laughter as he pecked her on the cheek. She pushed him off of her whimsically so that she could continue getting ready to leave. Roman slid on his pants before sitting back down on the couch to continue his conversation with his girlfriend.

"There was this tiny little cute boutique we went to. It was was all recycled clothing that the owner had gathered to create her own original pieces and you would've never known. And she uses part of her profits to donate to the local children's hospital. It was so amazing. I got some really nice things." She paused for a moment. "Okay Nikki just gave me a look, I guess that's a sign that I'm rambling." She laughed into the phone causing Roman to smile. As Paige slipped on her jacket she watched as he smiled into the phone and couldn't help but feel a little dismal.

"I like when you ramble." He said into the phone to Brie. It was clear as day to Paige that Roman did love Brie. She could see it by how his face lit up when he heard her laughter through the phone. She started to wonder to herself why on Earth Roman was doing this with her. He was in a relationship with Brie Bella, she was gorgeous, funny, and had a good heart. Roman loved everything about her, so why would he risk throwing all of that away? Her mood had shifted because of all the thoughts running in her head. She wasn't smiling anymore, all of the bliss that she felt when she was laying on his chest had disappeared. She put her shoes her on then looked up at Roman once more before sighing and making her way to the door. Roman noticed her leaving without so much as a goodbye and knew something was wrong. He wanted to call out her name to stop her but Brie was still on the other line. He stood up to go after her, but it was too late. The door had already shut behind Paige and she was making her way out of the hotel.

* * *

The movie Dean, Seth, and Emma were watching was ¾ of the way done. Seth was laughing and was just so into it, even though he had already seen it. Dean would never admit that Seth was right, but he was surprisingly actually enjoying the movie. He even caught himself laughing a few times. Emma on the other hand had just dozed off. It's not that she wasn't enjoying the film, she was just really sleepy and the movie felt like it was going on forever. She had tried to fight it a few times but eventually the sleep took over. As she slept, she shifted a bit and ended up laying her head on Dean's shoulder.

Dean turned his head and looked down at her and realized she was far gone. He didn't want to wake her because she looked so peaceful. He knew, though, that if she stayed in that position she would wake up with a neck-ache. As much as he didn't want to before, he slowly and steadily moved his arm behind her, causing her head to fall lower onto his shoulder, near his chest. Seth turned his attention away from the movie as he saw the movements from the corner of his eye and observed what was going on.

Dean adjusted himself a little more as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in close so that they were both comfortable. He turned his attention back to the TV without noticing Seth watching him. Seth shook his head in disapproval because he could see Dean growing incredibly close to Emma, and he had never really seen this side of him before. It was _weird_. He still stood by what he said earlier and knew in his gut that nothing good would come out of this. He could feel his jaw clench tightly as he thought to himself that if Dean ever hurt Emma, he'd be the first to wipe the floor with him. It's already known that Seth is really protective of the women in his life, and didn't care whether Dean was his friend or not, he wouldn't tolerate it if he ever did anything to hurt Emma in any way.

* * *

**Ah! okay, I hope you liked this chapter. I just had to mention Total Divas in the beginning because I just wanted it to be clear that though Brie is on Total Divas, the cameras aren't on Roman when he does what he does... Also, I chose to focus on Dean and Emma in this chapter a bit because I kind of put them on the back burner in the previous chapters :/**

**I really hoped you liked this and I hope you don't hate me! haha. And I'm curious to know how you feel about Roman's character in this. Okay, I'm done rambling! Reviews are _alway_ highly appreciated! Thanks for reading! :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**Enjoy!~**

* * *

It was Monday and it had been a long weekend, but everyone was excited because of Raw. Tonight the show was being hosted in Chicago, one of WWE's craziest crowds. The show was always better with a hyped up audience in the arena, so everyone was ready to put on the best show they could. The Bella Twins were stretching backstage and talking to the guys, known as The Shield as they prepared themselves for their match. They were scheduled to have a quick divas match against their fellow Total Divas stars, Eva Marie and Natalya because WWE wanted to promote the show a little more. As they continued getting ready for their match that would be in about thirty minutes or so, they were pulled aside by one of WWE's officials. The twins were told that there was a last minute change to the card and that it would now be a six diva tag match. The creative department had come up with a plan that would help develop two storylines at once, while promoting Total Divas, thus saving air time. The Bella Twins would now be teaming up with Naomi and their opponents would be Cameron, Emma, and Paige. The Bella Twins and Naomi were set up to win the match because Cameron would continue her antics towards Naomi, thus causing her team to lose. After this, creative had planned for AJ Lee to come out on the stage to cut a promo on Paige; they were currently feuding.

Brie and Nikki were used to these last minute changes so they just went with it without complaint. When Paige was notified, she didn't show any concern, but inside she was freaking out a bit. She was going to be wrestling against Brie Bella tonight, and it made her stomach turn knowing that she had to look her in the eyes. Emma was going on about something and her voice slowly died when she realized Paige wasn't listening. She also noticed that Paige looked a bit uneasy.

"Hey, are you alright?" Emma asked her as she laced up her boots in the divas locker room.

Paige was quickly dragged out of her thoughts and turned her attention to Emma. "What?"

Emma stood up and eyed her best friend with concern. "Are you okay? You seem a bit out of it since we found out about our match tonight. Are you nervous?"

Paige forced a smile as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "I'm fine, I swear."

Emma looked at her skeptically. She wasn't sure what to say. The last time Paige was like this before a match she nearly caused AJ to break her arm. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a bit worried about Paige tonight. "Are you sure?"

Paige nodded, "I'm sure. Let's go kick some butt."

Emma smiled, "We're losing tonight, don't forget."

Paige did nearly forget what the results of the match was supposed to be. She had tuned out the WWE official after she heard that she would be wrestling against Brie tonight. "Right." she said trying to make it sound like she knew all along as they exited the locker room.

* * *

"You have a match with Paige and Emma tonight?" Roman asked Brie before taking a drink from his water bottle. The Shield members had already had a match, they were the ones to open the show. They weren't done for the night though because they still had to come out during the main event of the show to wreck havoc. Brie nodded in response to his question. Roman didn't really have an issue with this, he was sure Paige would be able to keep her cool and everything would be fine. He actually wasn't even sure what was going on with him and Paige at the moment because she hadn't been responding to his texts or calls since the last night they were together. He had a feeling she was upset with him but he couldn't figure out why, especially with the way she left his room without so much as a goodbye.

"So are you excited or nervous for this weekend?" Nikki asked him as she stretched her arm over her head.

"What's this weekend?" Roman had a puzzled look on his face and had no idea what she was talking about.

Nikki put her arms down and raised an eyebrow at her sister.

"Oh shoot." Brie said as she looked up at the Samoan/Italian man. "I'm so sorry. I completely forgot to ask you."

Nikki almost laughed, "How could you possibly forget?"

Roman was completely lost now. "I honestly don't know." Brie responded.

"What's going on?" Roman finally questioned.

"Nikki and I are flying out to California this weekend to see our family and..." she smiled as she wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up into his chiseled face. "I would love it if you came with us. I know you've already met our mom and she loves you, but my dad, brother, and Nanna are dying to meet you." She smiled hopefully at him. She was nervous to ask him to come, that might have been the real reason why it slipped her mind. They had been together for over a year and four months, and always took things slowly in their relationship; nothing was ever rushed. She didn't want to overwhelm him by asking him to meet the most important people in her life. It most likely would have happened sooner but with them constantly being on the road going from city to city, it was hard to find the right time. Roman couldn't help but smile at how nervous she was.

He placed his hand onto the back of her head on brought his face down closer to hers. "I would love to meet your family." he assured her before pulling her into a kiss.

One of WWE's producers gave Nikki a nod signaling that it was time for them to head to the ring. Nikki rolled her eyes at the couple's PDA before clearing her throat loudly. Brie broke away from Roman reluctantly and looked at her twin. "It's time for our match. You guys can continue this love fest later." Nikki informed them with hand motions when she said_ love fest_. Brie was the happiest woman on the planet, she didn't even have a comeback for Nikki like she usually did. She just grinned at Roman once more before pecking him on the lips then followed her sister to the curtains.

Roman heard the Bella Twins' theme song start and watched them walk through the curtain with their tag partner. He migrated back to where his fellow Shield brothers were, standing around a big television screen with a couple of other superstars and divas watching the show. He took a seat on a nearby equipment box and watched the match. He loved watching Brie wrestle, and could see so much improvement in her, he was always so proud. Sometimes they would even go to the performance center and practice together, they had even done a practice mix gender match against Seth and Nikki before. The twins were always open to learning new moves and styles from the guys, and Roman always smiled when he saw Brie do something on TV that he taught her. Right now, he was trying hard to focus on what Brie was doing but really couldn't keep his eyes off of Paige, it was especially hard when they were the two in the ring together.

The match was going on pretty well, and everyone was doing great. Emma had tagged in and started prancing around the ring and doing her dance. Dean couldn't help but slightly chuckle at how adorable yet ridiculous she always was when she did it. Seth and Roman heard him and turned their attention to look at him. Dean quickly wiped the smile off of his face and shrugged it off as if he never even made a sound before looking back at the TV. Seth shook his head and tried to contain his laughter.

As they watched on, Paige was now in the match against Brie and Brie tossed her out of the ring onto the floor before shouting "_Brie Mode!_" out into the crowd. Roman smiled at how hyped she was. She made her way back to her corner and tagged Naomi in. Cameron, on the other side of the ring, began screeching out insults to her as they continued their storyline. As Paige was slowly standing to her feet, Naomi was getting set to do a suicide dive out of the ring onto her. Naomi ran and made her way out through the ropes to land on Paige and suddenly gasps filled the arena and everyone in the audience stood to their feet. The divas on the apron eyes' widened. Somehow Paige didn't adjust herself the right way to take the bump from the dive, and Naomi hadn't noticed until she was already in the air.

The guys watching backstage stood with concern as they saw the referee run over to the divas then throw up the X sign to the doctors at ringside. The camera then quickly panned away from Paige and Naomi as the show went to commercial. Roman jumped to his feet quickly.

"Did you see that? She was bleeding, right?" He asked with concern as his eyes were fixed on the TV. Dean had his eyebrows raised still stunned by the botch he just witnessed and Seth was still processing it.

When Naomi had landed onto Paige, who wasn't fully facing her yet, she landed pretty much on Paige's head and her elbow had hit Paige in the face harder than anything she had ever felt before. Paige could swear she blacked out for a brief moment. Neither divas were fully to blame though, Paige was still getting up to her feet and didn't see Naomi coming, while Naomi thought Paige was ready and went for it. Paige was honestly a bit distracted by the things going on behind closed doors, but she had tried so hard to put that all aside because she was on live television and had to put on a show. It was a classic tale of miscommunication.

Blood was streaming down from Paige's nose down to her chest and attire. Emma came down from the apron to check on her best friend but the referee told her to get back in the ring. One of the ringside doctors had placed a towel over Paige's nose and tried to quickly clean up the blood. Naomi helped the doctor bring Paige up to her feet and apologized quietly to her. The doctor walked Paige backstage because there was no way they were going to let her back into the ring before checking to make sure she didn't have a serious injury, like a concussion, because she did momentarily lose consciousness. WWE decided to keep the match going and turned it into a handicap match.

* * *

Meanwhile backstage, Roman was visibly tense as he paced back and fourth, his jaw clenched with one hand on his hip and the other rubbing the back of his neck. His friends could see the worry and frustration all over his face. This didn't raise any red flags to them though because Paige was a very good friend of theirs and he had every right to be concerned. Roman stopped pacing when he spotted Paige holding the bloody towel over her face as the doctor walked by her side.

Almost impulsively, he made his way over to the diva and stood in front of her and the doctor without caring who was watching. Paige raised an eyebrow at him as he stood there in front of her.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he moved her hand and the bloody towel from her face. Then he placed his hand on her chin to lift her head so he could take a good look at her.

"It's probably just a nose bleed." she responded to him almost mumbling her words.

"Just to be sure, I'd like to take a look, make sure nothing's broken and there isn't a concussion. The sooner the better." The doctor cut in.

Roman brought his hand back down to his side and nodded. "Uh, do you mind if I come?"

Paige gave him a_ what the hell are you doing? e_xpression but he ignored her and looked back to the doctor.

The man looked at Paige then scratched his eyebrow momentarily before responding to Roman's question. "Sorry, son, I don't think that's a good idea."

Roman clenched his jaw as he stepped out of the way to let them continue walking. As he watched them leave, he was startled when he felt someone's arms wrap around him from behind. He turned and smirked before leaning down to give Brie a quick kiss.

"I saw you talking to Paige. Do you know if she's gonna be okay?" Brie asked him with concern. He didn't realize Brie had been back from her match yet so he was a little worried when she mentioned that she saw him talking to Paige.

"Uh, I don't know. Doc's gonna check her out to make sure."

"It looked pretty bad from where I was standing. I hope she's alright." Brie gave him a half smile.

"Yeah, I hope so too." he said under his breath as they started walking together.

They made their way back to where Seth and Dean were standing. "By the way, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you sooner about this weekend." Brie said, changing the subject.

"Don't worry about it, doll." he smirked as he took her hand in his then lifted it up to plant a kiss on it. She couldn't help but smile and blush as his charm.

"You two and your lovey-dovey shit make me want to punch something." Dean scoffed. Brie laughed as she rolled her eyes at his comment.

"What's this weekend?" Seth questioned, ignoring Dean.

"Roman's flying to California with Nikki and I to meet our family!" Brie said with a excitement and a huge grin on her face.

Dean raised both of his eyesbrows as he smirked, "Whoa there Rome, sound's like the perfect opportunity for you to do something you've been planning on doing lately." He said as he nudged Roman's side referring to Roman proposing to Brie. Roman closed his eyes in annoyance. _Not this shit again. _He thought to himself as he opened his eyes to glare at Dean. "I'm just messing with you, man." Dean added.

Brie gave them both a puzzled look. "Don't listen to anything this idiot tells you." Roman warned her.

Seth had tuned them all out and was cooking up an idea in his head. An idea he thought was perfect and was sure to work. He knew exactly how he was going to get back into Nikki's good graces, and maybe even get her to want him again.

* * *

Later on in the night, Raw had come to an end and The Shield closed off the show. As soon as they got back to the backstage area, Roman had departed from his Shield members and went on the hunt to find Paige to figure out of she was okay. He didn't even tell Dean or Seth he was leaving their side. Seth shrugged it off because he had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Roman had hoped Paige was done with the doctor by now so he made his way to the diva's locker room. He texted Paige to tell her that he was on his way there but she didn't respond. Though, this was incredibly dumb because Brie was most likely in there, he had a plan. He would knock on the door, and if Brie or Nikki opened it or any of the Total Divas, he would play if off as if he was there for Brie. He really just needed to see that Paige was okay and he was keeping his fingers crossed that she or even Emma opened the door.

When he reached the locker room, he took a deep breath then hesitated but eventually got himself to knock. If felt like a whole minute until someone finally came to the door but when the person opened it, he wasn't sure if he should've been relieved or slightly panic. The diva looked behind her then back to Roman before stepping out of the locker room and closing the door behind her.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're here for Paige, but I'm hoping you're here for Brie." she said quietly as she pushed her dark hair behind her ear.

Roman cleared his throat before responding. "I uh- is Paige in there?"

The diva shook her head disappointingly at him.

"Listen, AJ, I know you're judging me but I don't care right now. I just want to know that Paige is alright." He told her as he remembered the time she caught him and Paige locking lips in the locker room.

"And meanwhile your _girlfriend _is in there gushing to everyone about how _amazing_ you are and how she can't wait for you to meet her family." AJ told him without any amusement in her voice. "How can you live with that?" she asked.

Roman rolled his eyes. "None of this is your business. Can you just do me a favor and ask Paige to meet me out here."

AJ shook her head in disappointment again. "Fine. But you're making it my business by asking me to do this for you."

"Just go please." He said with a sigh.

She gave him one more look of disapproval before turning around and entering the locker room again. She walked over to where Paige and Emma were.

"Can I talk to you for a minute." she asked Paige, who was holding a bag of ice over her nose. She nodded and followed AJ. When they were away from the other divas, AJ whispered, "There's a big, tattooed man, with great hair, who likes to call himself a hound of justice, out there waiting for you."

Paige raised an eyebrow, "Roman?" AJ nodded at the divas then walked away.

Paige sighed, put the bag of ice down, then made her way out of the locker room. She opened the door as little as she could to sneak out of it.

When Roman saw her come out, he grabbed her arm and pulled her around the corner of the hall so they had more privacy in case another diva walked out of the locker room. When they stopped walking, he placed both of his hands on the sides of her head and pushed it up gently as he observed her. "What did the doc say?" he asked.

She started to speak, "Nothing's broken. I don't have a concussion."

"What about these bruises and the bleeding." He questioned still holding her head.

"Roman, calm down. I was hit in the face, and my nose was bleeding. It's no big deal. It hurts, but I'm fine." she said trying to assure him.

"None of that should have happened in the first place. Why weren't you paying attention?" He asked as he brought his hands back down. "You need to be able to keep your cool when you're in that ring. It doesn't matter who your opponent is."

Paige furrowed her eyebrows, "It was a mistake. It could've happened to anyone." she said.

"It could've been avoided. What if you were seriously hurt? I need you to be more careful when you're in the ring."

* * *

Meanwhile, Seth was on a mission to find Nikki and put his plan to work. He started walking towards the divas' locker room because he couldn't wait any longer to see her. As he walked and was about to turn the corner, he heard familiar voices. He peaked his head behind the wall of the corner and saw Paige and Roman talking. He was about to continue walking but was stopped again when he heard Paige say something that caught him off guard.

* * *

"I don't need you to worry about what I do in the ring. Go worry about Brie, okay?" she said. She turned to make her way back to the locker room but Roman took her hand to stop her. She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand away to cross her arms over her chest.

"Why are you mad at me right now?" He asked.

"I'm not mad at you." She lied. He gave her look to express that he wasn't buying it. "I don't get why you care so much, we're not in a relationship."

He raised an eyebrow, "So that's what this is about? You want a relationship?"

She sighed, "God, no Roman, I don't want a relationship, I don't want any of this. You're with Brie and you love her so why are you even doing this with me?" She asked with a hint of anger in her voice.

"I don't know." he answered as he rubbed his face with his hand.

Seth raised his eyebrows in disbelief at what he was hearing, he couldn't believe any of it.

She looked up to the ceiling trying to escape the pain she feeling, not the pain from the botch fest she was part of earlier in the night, the pain in her chest because of how much seeing him happy with Brie was hurting her. The most painful part of it was all the guilt she felt. "Paige, you're making this more difficult than it needs to be." he said with exhaustion in his voice.

She looked back to him, "I'm done. I can't sneak around with you anymore, it's not fair to anyone. I hope that makes things less difficult for you."

He swallowed hard and tried to mask how much her words had hurt him. "Don't do this." he said practically begging.

She looked away from him again as she felt tears starting to build in her eyes. "Have fun meeting Brie's family this weekend, she's really excited." she said before forcing a smile towards him. She turned away from him as soon as she started to feel the tears making it's way out of her eyes because she didn't want him to see it. Roman watched as she walked away and passed both of hands through his hair with frustration.

* * *

Seth, still in disbelief, turned around to make his way back to the men's locker room. It had completely slipped his mind where he was going in the first place. As he turned around to start walking he accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry." he said as he looked up and saw Nikki standing in front of him.

"It's fine." she smiled. She looked at him and could tell something was wrong. "Are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah I'm good- I'm fine."

She eyed him skeptically, "Rollins, you're lying to me again."

"I uh- I gotta go." He said. He wanted to see her earlier, and was on his way to look for her when he overheard Paige and Roman's conversation but right now he was still stunned from what he heard. He stepped around Nikki to continue walking but she stopped him.

"Whoa, Seth. What's wrong with you?" she said as she held his arm. He was angry that Roman, his best friend, could ever do something like that to Brie or to Paige. Part of him really wanted to punch the shit out of Roman, but the other part told him to let go of it because it seemed like they had just ended things. He couldn't tell Nikki about what he had just found out because she'd be obligated to tell Brie and he couldn't stand the idea of Brie getting hurt. He had no clue what to do and Nikki could could see the agitation on his face.

"I know we've been on a rocky road lately, but if something's bothering you, you can tell me." She assured him.

He smiled at her, "It's nothing. Really, but thank you."

She smiled back, "I'll pretend to believe you. You're kind of cute when you lie, anyway."

Seth chuckled, "I'm always cute."

"Whatever you say, Rollins." she smirked.

They stood there awkwardly for a moment as Seth battled with himself to go along with his plan but he couldn't get himself to do it. "Alright, well I gotta go. I'll see you around." he said feeling like a coward.

She nodded as he turned around to leave then sighed wishing the conversation would've ended differently.

* * *

**Okay so this chapter was not that good, it was more like a filler to lead up to the events of the next chapter. Hopefully, if things go the way I plan, the next one will be great. I still hope you enjoyed this though! As usual, thank you so much for your reviews on the previous chapters and for continuing to read this. I really mean it. And quick shout out to _Random K_ because you always leave awesome reviews and it really means a lot to me and I hope you don't hate me after this chapter because I know you love Raige. :) Also to Kenn . Faith. Dawn for the idea to have Paige and Brie in a match together! :D**


	10. Chapter 10

**Enjoy~**

* * *

Since the events at Monday Night Raw, the week had slowly come to an end. It was now a windy Saturday morning and The Bella Twins were set and ready to fly out to California to spend some well deserved time with their family. Though they could only stay until Monday morning, they were still so excited to be going home. Brie was excited because she'd be bringing someone special home with her, but part of her felt a little iffy about it . The Bellas and Roman were all packed and ready for their flight but they still had a couple of hours to kill. Brie and Nikki decided they were going to go out for breakfast together while Roman decided to stay behind. He had been in a visibly bad mood since Monday night. Paige was doing everything she could to avoid him; she even made sure she wasn't in the same room as him if she didn't have to be. He wasn't angry because Paige decided to abruptly end things with him, he was more hurt and confused by it and that put him in a gloomy mood. He didn't think she could have such an affect on him, but she did. He had been quieter than usual this week, keeping to himself and throwing himself an internal pity party. So when Brie and Nikki asked him to come out for breakfast, of course he passed up the offer and decided to be alone his hotel room.

As Brie and Nikki sat in the restaurant eating their delicious breakfast meals, things were a little quiet between them. Nikki had started each conversation they had and Brie didn't seem to make an effort to carry it out for long. She knew something was up; Nikki was so good at reading people. She decided to try again with another conversation.

"I still can't believe you_ forgot _to ask Roman to come with us this weekend. Especially with how excited you were at the idea." she said before taking a sip of her coffee.

"It slipped my mind" Brie replied without hesitation. Nikki eyed her for a moment. "I mean, we've all been incredibly busy lately, can you really blame me?"

Nikki rolled her eyes. She really couldn't believe people didn't realize by now how good she is at telling when something's wrong or better yet, when she's being lied to. "Brie, I know you better than anyone and you and I both know that it didn't just _slip your mind_. What's going on?"

Brie put her cup down and sighed. She hated how Nikki could always do this, it's like she could read her mind or something. Nikki smiled at her sister reassuringly as she waited. "I don't know, maybe I'm just over thinking it, but Roman's been acting really strange lately and I don't know if I did something wrong, or if he's hiding something... So I wanted to hold off on asking him to come, just in case. And especially after this week, I'm starting to regret even asking him."

Nikki slightly tilted her head to side, "What do you mean? What did he do?" she asked with concern.

Brie took a deep breath. "I feel like he's lied to me a couple of times lately and he's been so distant this week. He's barely said two words to me at all lately. And I've been giving him his space, but I can't help but wonder what's going on." She paused for a moment as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "It really started about a month ago and I pushed it under the rug before, but it's gotten so much worse this week."

Nikki was taken back. She couldn't believe what Brie was telling her because she and Roman looked so happy and in love when she saw them together. But then she started to remember that she had picked up on a few things also that seemed strange to her too.

"What has he lied about?" Nikki asked, searching for more information.

Brie sat up a little straighter in her seat as she began to spew the details to her sister. "This was probably the first thing, and I can't get it out of my head no matter how hard I've tried to ignore it. A few weeks back, I found a woman's jacket in his luggage."

Nikki raised her eyebrows as she listened to Brie's words. "It wasn't mine, and it obviously wasn't his but when I asked him about it he blatantly lied to my face. All he could say was _'I don't know._'"

"How could he not know, if it was with_ his_ stuff?" Nikki added.

"Exactly. That's what's so weird about it. But I let it go because it really wasn't a big deal, it's just the fact that I felt like he wasn't being honest." Nikki nodded to Brie with empathy as Brie continued speaking. "You remember that day we were at the gym and Seth said Roman didn't go out with the guys the night before, right? And Roman told me that's where he was. I just thought it was weird how Seth quickly changed his story. I didn't think anything of it until recently."

"That was weird." Nikki commented as she remember the cold glares Roman was giving Seth before he changed his story.

Brie sighed, "I'm probably just reading between the lines and over thinking it. I just hate how distant he's been lately. I feel like I've done something to make him upset with me." she said as she felt herself starting to get emotional.

Nikki reached over and squeezed her sister's hand for comfort. "Brianna, stop worrying so much. Roman's a guy, and guys can be weird sometimes, especially with their feelings. You guys have been together for what, over a year now?" Brie nodded in response. "I think, maybe he's a little nervous about taking your relationship to the next level and this might be his way of dealing with it. As for the lying, we don't know for sure that they were lies." Nikki told her. Except, Nikki wasn't believing a word she was saying. She just wanted to make Brie feel better and get her to stop worrying because she couldn't stand to see her like this. Nikki knew something was definitely up with Roman, and she was ready to get to the bottom of it.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Brie said after exhaling deeply. Nikki gave her a comforting smile. As the conversation came to an end, they both returned to eating their food as Nikki brainstormed ways she could figure out what's really going on.

"What did that jacket look like?" she asked Brie out of no where.

Brie swallowed the food that she was chewing before answering her sister's random question. "Um, it was black, leather, had zippers." she thought for a moment trying to remember, "Oh and it was studded, around the collar area and the shoulders" she moved her hands over herself to show Nikki exactly where it was studded so she could visualize it. Nikki nodded as she began thinking and plotting in her mind.

* * *

When they arrived back at the hotel, they went to Nikki's room first to grab her luggage, then went back to Brie and Roman's room. When they returned to her room, Roman was gathering all their stuff towards the door. He gave Brie a quick kiss on the cheek and that was it. He looked at the time, and told the twins that it was time to leave if they wanted to make it in time for the flight. They agreed and were all set to leave. Before Roman could open the door, there was a knock on it. Roman turned to look at Brie and Nikki to see if they were expecting someone because he certainly wasn't. They both shrugged. He turned back around and turned the knob to open the door. When he opened it he was faced with his fellow Shield member, Seth Rollins.

"What are you doing here? We were just about to leave for the airport." Roman informed him.

Seth looked past Roman, "I'm not here for you." He said coldly. Seth had been like this to Roman all week since he found out about him and Paige. He barely even spoke to him aside from when they had to be in the ring together or cut a promo together. Roman didn't really care or notice because he was distancing from everyone lately anyways.

Seth made his way into the hotel room without being invited in and Roman just took a deep breath with annoyance as he shut the door. Seth now stood in front of Nikki. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked. "I went to your room but you weren't there, so I assumed you'd be here."

"Uh... I'm sorry. We have a flight to catch. Can this wait?" Nikki responded.

Seth shook his head, "Don't worry, it'll be quick. You won't miss your flight, I promise."

"Okay..." Nikki responded as she looked at him suspiciously.

"We'll be in the car." Brie told them as she and Roman grabbed the luggage and headed out of the hotel room.

Seth waited for the door to close before speaking again. "You won't miss your flight because... I'm coming with you." He said trying as hard as he could to not look nervous.

Nikki raised an eyebrow and almost started laughing. "You're what?"

"I know this is crazy, I tried to talk myself out of it, but I obviously failed." he raised a hand behind his head to scratch the back of his neck. "Since that night you kissed me, I can't stop thinking about it, or you. I'm _not_ sorry for turning you down that night because you were drinking."

"Seth-" she started to say before he cut her off,

"What I am sorry for is that I made you think that I wasn't interested in you that way. Because I am interested. I wouldn't be standing here making a fool out of myself if I wasn't." Nikki let out a little laugh. "The point is, I want you to give me this weekend to prove to you that I'm interested. To show you that I want you to be more than a friend to me, or just my tag partner's girlfriend's twin sister to me." He thought about what he just said for a second. "Okay, yeah that made sense." He laughed.

Nikki was blown away by his gesture. The night she kissed him was because the alcohol in her system finally gave her the courage to do so. She had always been interested in Seth and was hurt when he turned her down. But she didn't know what to say to him now because of how blown away she was.

"Come on, Nikki, I'm losing my confidence here." He told her as he waited for her to say something.

"Um," Nikki said as she broke away from her thoughts. She exhaled deeply before responding. "Okay."

He tried to contain his excitement before he could speak again, "Okay as in, you're letting me come with you?" He asked just to be sure. She nodded and smiled at him.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist my charm and good looks." He joked smugly.

Nikki rolled her eyes, "Get over yourself, Rollins. Or I just might have to change my mind."

Seth quickly erased the smug look from his face causing Nikki to grin. "I'm joking." she informed him. He let out a breath of relief as she laughed at his reaction. Seth had already had his luggage down stairs in hopes she would say yes, so he was all ready to go.

* * *

Later on that day, Paige and Emma had just come back from the gym and Paige was getting ready to head into the shower. As she grabbed her towel, she glanced at her phone for a moment to see another text from the person she had been trying to avoid all week. She took a deep breath as she deleted the text without even reading it then threw the phone onto her bed. Before she could turn to head into the shower, she stopped when she heard Emma giggling. She watched her best friend as she sat on her bed grinning as she texted on her phone.

"Are you alright over there?" Paige asked as she looked at Emma dubiously.

Emma looked up from her cell phone to Paige as she tried to contain her laughter, "Yes, I'm fine."

Paige raised an eyebrow at her, "What's so funny then?"

Emma grinned again as she looked at her phone. Paige waved her hand around trying to catch her attention again. Emma looked up again. "I'm sorry," she laughed, "Dean's just telling me that his drinking buddies are gone for the weekend. I'm trying to convince him that he's lonely without them but he won't stop denying it."

Paige squinted her eyes a bit at Emma. "You two have been talking a lot lately," she stated.

Emma nodded, "Mhm. I know you two always argue, but he's really great when he isn't trying to get under your skin."

Paige smiled as she rolled her eyes, "Yeah well, he's _always_ trying to get under my skin."

"I have an idea!" Emma suddenly blurted out, startling Paige a bit. "We should invite him over, and we can all hang out together!"

Paige raised her eyebrow again, "No way." she said.

Emma stood up and made her way over to Paige. "Oh come on, he's all alone in his hotel room. Roman and Seth are both gone for weekend and we really don't have anything planned for tonight."

Paige shook her head, "No. I'm really not in the mood to deal with Dean tonight." she pleaded. Emma frowned and gave Paige her best puppy dog look ever. "Stop it." Paige demanded. Emma put both of her hands together to beg even more to add on to her puppy dog face. Paige rolled her eyes, "Fine. Invite him over." She finally gave in.

Emma grinned widely, "Yes!" she exclaimed as she picked up her phone to dial his number.

Paige shook her head, "If he bothers me tonight, I'm holding it against you." she warned Emma who just flashed her a smile in response. Paige let out a deep breath as she exited the room to make her way into the bathroom.

* * *

Nikki, Seth, Brie, and Roman had arrived to the twins' family's home safe after their plane ride. Nikki and Brie's family took a great liking to Roman and Seth and welcomed them with open arms. When Nikki had to introduce Seth, she really had no idea what to call him so she settled with the term, 'friend.' Seth didn't mind this at all since they really were just friends at the moment, but he had hopes that would soon change.

The four of them joined the ladies' mom, brother, and grandmother for a nice dinner. Dinner wasn't awkward, the Bella family were huge fans of the Shield and couldn't stop praising them, causing Roman to blush and smile. Seth kind of laughed it off and was more talkative than Roman was. He even turned the compliments onto the Bella Twins and told their family how hard they had been working to improve in the ring. As dinner went by, Seth was really doing a great job of getting back into Nikki's good graces and she couldn't help but start to feel herself grow a soft spot for him. Roman on the other hand, was a little quiet, distant, and distracted. He of course answered questions and contributed to the conversation when he was spoken to first. As much as he was honored to be there with Brie's family, and was relieved that they really liked him, part of him really didn't want to be there. He couldn't get Paige out of his head no matter how hard he tried and started to wonder if there was anything he could do to get her back because he couldn't handle this. Brie noticed how reserved he was being and wasn't really surprised by it, since he had been like that all week. She was actually a little jealous that Seth and Nikki, who weren't even in a relationship, were doing way better with the whole 'meet the family' thing.

When they were all done eating, Seth was a real gentleman and offered to help the women clean up. Nikki was really astonished by all of this and she couldn't stop smiling at him. Roman would have helped too but Nikki and Brie's bother, JJ, pulled him to the side and asked to speak to him. Roman followed him out to the patio deck of the house and sat down on the bench. JJ handed him a cold beer as he sat down next to him and began speaking.

"So you've been dating my sister for a while now, huh?" he asked.

Roman took a sip of the beer before nodding. "A year and four months now."

"That's a long time." Brie's brother commented. Roman nodded again in agreement. "Look, you're a really cool guy. I'm a big fan of what you do in the ring, and Brianna, she's in love with you, man. As _cliché_ as this is, I have to ask, what are your intentions with my sister?" He asked. Roman knew this conversation would come up somehow this weekend, he thought it would be with Brie's father, though.

Roman sat up straight as he began answering the question. "Brie is an amazing woman, and I'm lucky I found her. You probably know better than I do how great she is." He smiled as he thought about it, "I don't know... I really care for her and she makes me happy." Roman took another drink from his bottle of beer. This was a hard conversation for him to have, especially after not being completely faithful to Brie. He felt like he was lying through his teeth and really didn't know what else to say because none of it felt right. He does love Brie, and does care for her but he had no clue what his_ intentions_ were.

"I mean, you guys have been together for so long. You're always with each other, you practically live together since you're always on the road together. The last thing I want, is to see my sister get hurt." Her brother warned him. Roman nodded in agreement as he felt all his guilt start to build up in his chest. He released a deep breath to try to get rid of it all. "I like you a lot. So I guess what I'm saying is, if you two feel like you're ready to take the next step in your relationship, I give you my blessing. I know this is the first time I've met you, but I see the way her face lights up when she talks about you. And if you make her happy, that's enough for me, man."

This was a lot for Roman to take in at once. He thanked him then took another sip of his beer. Roman felt like the biggest piece of scum on the planet. Here was Brie's brother telling him how happy he's made Brie, and giving him his blessing, yet the entire time there was another woman on his mind. What kind of person does that? Roman exhaled deeply not sure how he was supposed to feel in that moment because all he felt was guilt and he felt conflicted. He heard the door open and saw Brie walk out onto the patio.

"Mom needs you inside," she told her brother. He turned his attention back to Roman and gave him a reassuring look before shaking his hand, then went into the house.

It was now only Brie and Roman out there in silence. She stood there and watched him as he fiddled with the bottle in his hand and stared at the ground. They stayed there in silence for what felt like forever. She sighed before making her way over to sit next to him on the bench. She took a deep breath and felt like the silence between them was choking her. She had no clue what was going on with their relationship but with each second she could feel him pulling away from her even more, and it hurt.

She slowly closed her eyes and prepared herself to start speaking. "Roman..." she began, "I miss you." she finally said.

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her. "I'm right here." he said feeling confused.

Brie shook her head, "No, you're not. I miss you talking to me. I miss the way things were before."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said as he downed more of his beer.

"Did I do something to make you pull away from me? Because if so, I'm so sorry, Roman." She said with a sigh as she began to feel her emotions build up.

Roman put the bottle down and rubbed his face with his hands as he sighed. He turned his head to take a look at her again and felt his stomach tighten when he saw the sadness in her brown eyes. He felt like the worst person on the planet. Brie was blaming herself for his dumbness and that hurt him more than anything else. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in closer to him.

"You didn't do anything. You're perfect, Brie. I'm just, I don't know, I'm an idiot." He said then planted a kiss on her head. "I'm sorry." He held her tighter against him as he closed his eyes and tried to escape all his thoughts of Paige.

* * *

Back in Paige and Emma's hotel room, Dean had come over and they decided to have some fun. They played a recent episode of Raw and decided to play a drinking game with some hard liquor that Dean brought along. They decided that every time the WWE App, Twitter, or the WWE Network was mentioned, they would each have to take a shot. The episode of Raw was almost over and Emma was a goner. Paige and Dean laughed at how much of a lightweight Emma was as a drinker. Dean and Paige were surprisingly getting along really well and didn't bicker at all. Paige was actually really enjoying his company; he was a lot easier to tolerate when they had alcohol in their system.

As the episode of Raw ended, Paige and Dean laughed in disbelief at how many times WWE advertised twitter, the app, and the network. It was ridiculous. Emma had her head rested on Dean's shoulder and wasn't asleep yet but was almost there. Dean looked at Paige wondering what he should do and she shrugged. Dean rolled his eyes at her for not helping him at all. He slowly lifted Emma's head off of his shoulder so he could get up. He decided the best thing for him to do was to get her to her bed so she could sleep it off. He leaned down and gently scooped her into his arms, bridal style, as Paige looked on. He didn't care. He walked over to Emma's room and placed her down gently on the bed and then pulled the sheets over her. He looked down at her for a moment and observed how soft her face looked as she dozed off and smiled. He couldn't believe how much he liked the idea of taking care of her, he had never felt this way about any woman before. As he thought about it, Seth's words about him not being good enough for Emma started to creep their way back into his head. Those words haunted him every time he thought about Emma. He released a deep breath then turned away from her to exit the room. Before he could walk very far, he felt a soft hand grab his and he turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

"Don't leave." Emma told him half asleep, with a soft voice.

Dean raised an eyebrow not sure exactly what to say or what she even meant by that. "You want me to stay?" he questioned. Emma smiled as she nodded and held on to his hand. "Uh, okay." He responded. He sat down next her on the bed as their fingers intertwined. He looked down at their hands and started to feel tense and uneasy as Seth's words continued to haunt him.

"You can lay down, if you want." she told him as she watched how nervous he looked.

"I uh, I don't think that's a good idea, Blondie." He warned.

She grinned, "Don't worry, Dimples. I just want you to be here with me."

He couldn't help but smile back at her. He contemplated the idea in his head and couldn't resist the way she was looking at him._ Screw it, why the hell not? _He thought to himself as he scooted further onto the bed and laid next to her. Emma adjusted herself so they'd be more comfortable. She rested her head on his shoulder/chest area and he put an arm around her. Dean was enjoying the warmth from her smooth skin on his. He couldn't believe it; he was cuddling. Dean Ambrose was cuddling. What the hell kind of spell did Emma put on him? He wondered to himself.

Paige sat alone on the couch wondering what was taking Dean so long. She sighed as she got up to go check on them to make sure everything was alright. She poked her into the room and raised both of her eyebrows at the sight of Dean and Emma being cozy together. She smiled and shook her head at them then decided not to interrupt. She left them and went back to watching TV until she fell asleep.

Dean peeked down at Emma, and she had already fallen asleep. As he breathed in, he couldn't help but take a whiff of the sweet smell of her blonde hair. He placed his fingers in her blonde locks and ran his fingers through them while also massaging her scalp. The peacefulness of this eventually caused him to doze off also.

* * *

At the Bella house, after hanging around and talking with the family for a while, Roman and Brie decided to call it a night and go to bed. Things felt a little better between them and this made Brie feel a lot better. Roman, on the other hand, still felt like shit because he couldn't get Paige off of his mind, no matter how bad he wanted to. She was like a song stuck in his head, he just couldn't escape her. This had been the second time Roman lost Paige and it was much harder to handle this time. He wanted to get her back in his life, but he knew that if did that, in the end someone was bound to get hurt. And he knew that person was Brie. How could two women have this much of an affect on him? Why was it so hard for him to just choose Brie and let go of Paige? All of this was stressing him out, and he didn't even want to think about it anymore.

A little bit later, Seth and Nikki decided to end their night also. They said their good nights to everyone then made their way to Nikki's old bedroom. When they got in there, Seth looked around and saw all her soccer trophies, and teenage like things around the room. He smiled as he took a look at a picture on Nikki's nightstand of her and Brie when they were younger.

"So..." she said distracting him from observing the room and photos.

"So." he responded.

"Where are you planning on sleeping?" she asked him.

Seth shrugged, "Wherever you want me to sleep."

She inhaled deeply before speaking again. "You were really wonderful tonight. My family loves you." she informed him.

Seth shrugged again, "They're great people. I guess now I know where you get _your_ greatness from."

She felt her cheeks get warm as she smiled at him. "Consider yourself on my good side now, Rollins." she told him.

Seth stepped closer to her, "I think... I've always been on your good side. You just didn't want to admit it." He smirked.

Nikki rolled her eyes, "Oh my gosh, Rollins. You're so-" she started to say but was stopped when Seth put his hand on the side of her face and pulled her into a kiss. Now Nikki was even more blown away by him. When he finally pulled away he looked at her and waited for her to react.

She made a sour face. "Well..." she started saying. "That was a lot better when I was drunk." she told him with a look of disgust on her face.

Seth furrowed his eyebrows and the smile on his face faded as he brought his hand down from her face. "Wow. That was a bit harsh." he told her feeling offended.

Nikki couldn't hold it in any longer as a smirk crept on her face. Seth was definitely confused. Nikki tried to stop herself from laughing. "I was joking again." She told him slyly.

Seth closed his eyes as he shook his head. "That was cruel."

Nikki let out a laugh, "Sorry, but you deserved it." she said.

"Oh yeah?" he asked smiling.

Nikki nodded and grinned, "Yeah."

Seth raised his eyebrow before wrapping his arms around her and lifting her off the ground.

"Oh my god! Seth, put me down." she laughed.

He did as she wished and released her onto the bed as he laid on top of her. Nikki laughed as he looked down into her eyes for a moment and brought his hand up to her face to push her hair out of the way. "And you deserve this." he said to her softly before leaning down so their lips could meet once more.

* * *

**I hope you liked this chapter! There wasn't much Raige in it because I wanted to focus more on Brie and Roman's relationship and his struggles since the last chapter. Also, I hope you enjoyed the Nikki/Seth and Dean/Emma development. I'm trying to develop the story slowly between Dean and Emma. I hope you don't mind that I used the actual Bella Brother in this.**

**Anyways, as always you're reviews are _very_ appreciated and motivate me to keep going! Thank you for your previous reviews :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you so much for continuing to read this story! It really means the world to me.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

Monday had rolled in and The Bellas, Seth, and Roman had flown into the next city for Monday Night Raw. The weekend went pretty well for them especially after Brie and Roman had their little talk. Roman was now more conscientious about the way he acting towards her and realized she didn't deserve it at all. He promised to himself that he would keep his feelings for Paige separated from his love for Brie and hoped that it was possible. He still couldn't stop thinking about Paige and wishing that she hadn't ended things with him so abruptly. She was ignoring and avoiding him at all costs and he knew it. He hated feeling so distant from her, and hated that this had been the second time that he lost her. Roman needed to get Paige back because it was really messing with his head and emotions.

As they entered the backstage area of the arena, Brie gave Roman a quick peck on the lips before they separated so she could enter the divas locker room to prepare for the show. Nikki smiled at Seth then followed her sister's lead. Things were a bit confusing between her and Seth. Neither of them were entirely sure where their relationship stood after the weekend. All Nikki knew was that she was swooning hard for Seth, but she just wanted to go with the flow and see where it takes them.

As the women entered the locker room with their luggage in hand, Nikki spotted a diva in the corner of the room and slightly furrowed her eyebrows. She watched Paige as she slipped her jacket off and put it down on one of the benches. Nikki looked at the jacket because it seemed exactly like the one her sister described to her. She turned away from Paige to look at Brie to see if she noticed. Brie was in her own world and wasn't even facing Paige's direction. Nikki looked back at Paige and inspected the jacket. It was black leather, had zippers where the pockets were, and was studded near the collar and shoulder area. Nikki bit her lip as she thought to herself. She was trying to convince herself to stop speculating because she didn't even know what the jacket really looked like since she never saw it for herself. All she knew was a description of it and that it was in Roman's bag. She shook her head and tried to tell herself that maybe she was going overboard and that it couldn't possibly have been the same one. She wanted to ask Brie if that was it, but she really didn't want to alarm her or make her concerned. Nikki finally broke her stare from Paige's jacket and turned around to put her things away as she tried to escape the thoughts in her head.

* * *

"What are you going to say to Dean when you see him tonight?" Paige asked Emma, who was on the ground, going through her luggage to find her ring gear.

Emma looked up at Paige and gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?" The Australian diva asked.

Paige shrugged, "I mean, he's been pretty much avoiding you since the night he slept over. And it was strange how he sneaked his way out in the middle of the night."

Emma sighed and turned her attention back to finding her stuff. She didn't want to think about Dean right now. She was embarrassed by the situation. She was a bit intoxicated and asked him to lay in bed with her. Then he snuck out of the hotel room in the middle of the night while she and Paige were asleep. She tried texting and calling him a couple of times since, but he didn't answer. Emma had no clue what was going with her and Dean. Things just didn't seem as normal between them anymore.

"Emma?" Paige said, still waiting for an answer.

"I'm going to apologize to him because I was drinking and clearly made him uncomfortable." Emma responded after thinking for a moment.

Paige slightly raised an eyebrow, "Emma, I saw you two together. He was_ not_ uncomfortable." she stated.

Emma shrugged and didn't respond. Paige opened her mouth to speak but was stopped when she heard her phone go off, signaling that she had a new text. She looked at the phone and saw that she had a new message from the last man she wanted to talk to. She was about to delete it but before she got the chance, another one came in. She took a deep breath and turned the phone off. As her phone powered off, she looked over at Brie and instantly felt that guilty pain in her chest. She wished Roman could just stop and leave her alone for the sake of Brie. Paige knew that Brie didn't deserve any of this and she began wishing she had never even walked into Roman's hotel room the night when this whole thing began. She ran her fingers through her hair as she sighed deeply.

* * *

Later on in the night, Paige had a match and segment with AJ to continue their story line. Afterwords, Paige was backstage with Emma and Seth as they spoke and watched what was going on in the ring. Everyone was doing their best to put on an excellent show because there was a pay per view coming up this weekend. Seth gave Paige some pointers and ideas about what she could do during the Smackdown taping the next day to really get the audience intrigued in the diva's championship story line. Paige listened with open ears. She, Emma, and Seth always had this bond where they could go to each other for tips and advice. As they continued speaking, Paige could feel a presence behind her but she didn't turn around.

"The crowd's already invested in you and AJ, so just try to put on the best match you can-" Seth was saying before he slowly stopped speaking and eyed his fellow Shield member who was standing behind Paige and listening in on the conversation.

Emma turned to see what Seth was looking at and smiled brightly when she saw Roman. "Oh, hi!" she exclaimed with her cheerful tone.

Paige turned around to see who Emma was speaking to and released an exasperated breath at the sight of Roman. Roman smiled to Emma and gave her a little nod to acknowledge her then turned his attention back to the person he was there for as Seth watch on. Roman nodded his head to the side signaling Paige to go with him to talk. Paige glared at him then turned around to face Seth again.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" She asked him, hoping Roman got the hint that she wasn't interested in going anywhere with him.

Seth's eyes remained glued to Roman and he opened his mouth to continue speaking. He finally looked back to Paige and Emma after glaring at Roman for a few more seconds. As he spoke, Roman was growing frustrated with Paige. She wouldn't even give him just a moment, and he just wanted to know what he did wrong so he could fix it. He looked around the area and scanned it to see if anyone was watching them. When he saw that everyone was busy doing their own things, he moved a bit closer to Paige. Their was barely any space left in between them and Paige could feel the warmth of his body behind her. He did it so slyly that Emma, who was facing the same direction as Paige, didn't notice him move. Seth on the other hand did notice. Seth was well aware that something was going between Roman and Paige but he thought they had ended things so he was a bit confused at what was going on. He, Paige and Emma, continued their discussion but Seth still had an eye on Roman.

"Please talk to me." Roman whispered in Paige's ear as quietly as he could as he stood close behind her. Paige suddenly felt that nervous feeling in her chest and stomach. She couldn't believe he was doing this so overtly. It's like he didn't care who saw anymore.

"I'll talk to AJ about what you told me and we'll work it out. I'm excited for our match on Sunday. I think it'll be great" Paige told Seth, completely ignoring Roman.

Seth nodded to Paige then turned his attention to Emma. "What about you? Do you know if you're on the card for the PPV yet?" he asked her.

As Seth and Emma spoke back and forth, Roman leaned into Paige again and whispered, "Paige, please stop ignoring me." Paige rolled her eyes wishing that he would just go away. She shook her head a little bit so that Seth and Emma wouldn't notice but just enough so Roman would get the hint. Roman released a frustrated sigh. He wondered to himself why Paige had to be so stubborn and difficult at times. He realized that the only way that he could get her to cooperate would be if he made her do it the hard way. "If you don't walk away with me by the time I count to 5, I will pick you up in front of all of these people and carry you away." he whispered.

Paige shook her head and rolled her eyes at his threat. She knew he wouldn't actually do it. That would risk everything. Someone would see and Brie would instantly know. In fact, Brie could walk in on the scene at any given moment. She knew Roman wasn't dumb enough to actually risk everything.

"1..." Roman whispered quietly in her ear as she contributed to the conversation with Emma and Seth again. "2..." he went on. Paige shook her head and smiled at the fact that he was actually counting. "3..." She pushed her dark hair behind her ear as she nodded in agreement to something Emma was saying. "4..." Roman continued. Paige still ignored his threat because he was clearly bluffing. Before he reached to 5, he slowly placed a hand on her hip. Seth continued speaking but saw everything that was going on. Paige silently gasped at the feeling of his finger tips and palm on her skin. Roman slowly moved his hand further around her body to wrap it around her so he had a good grip. Paige was stunned; he was actually getting ready to do it. "5-" he whispered. Before he got the chance to make his move, Paige quickly removed herself from his grasp and stepped away from him. She placed both of her hands in her hair and ran them through it.

Emma stopped talking and looked at Paige. "Are you okay?" she asked with concern.

Paige looked over at Roman who seemed like he was waiting desperately. "Yes, um, I have to go. I have to_ talk to someone_." she said, emphasizing her last words as she looked directly into Roman's eyes, finally giving up her fight. Roman smirked at his accomplishment. Paige held her stare with Roman as she started walking way from Seth and Emma, knowing that Roman would follow her. Roman waited a moment before going after her so things wouldn't seem so obvious. As Paige walked, unsure of exactly where Roman wanted them to go, she turned around to look at him again. Roman nodded once to her to assure her that he would follow.

Roman smiled at Emma before stepping away from her and Seth. As he walked away to follow Paige, Seth looked to Emma and opened his mouth to speak. "Excuse me, I'll be right back." he told her before following after Roman. Paige waited awkwardly around the corner unsure of where Roman wanted her to go and wait. She was trying to mentally prepare herself because she knew that, with just one look, he had the ability to tear down the walls that she had built to guard herself from him.

As Roman continued walking past people to get to Paige, he was caught off guard when he felt someone aggressively grab his shoulders to turn him around. He angrily clenched his jaw and glared as he waited for an explanation from Seth, who was now standing in front of him. "What the hell is your problem?" He growled at Seth with a deep and cold tone.

Normally, Seth would be a little intimated by the powerhouse but right now, it was taking all of his strength not to knock some sense into Roman. "What's _my_ problem?" he scoffed. "You need to stop what you're doing."

Roman took a small step back as he gave Seth a puzzled look. "What are you talking about?" he question.

Seth shook his head with disappointment. "Look man, you might be fooling Brie and the rest of the world, but I see what's going on and I suggest you put an end to it."

Roman was left speechless, unsure of what to say. There was no way that Seth actually knew, Roman thought to himself. He waited for Seth to clarify what he meant before he could respond or react.

"Paige is like a little sister to me, and so is Brie now. What you're doing to both of them is-" Seth said before Roman shhh'd him to tell him to lower his voice.

Roman looked around to make sure no one overheard. "You need to shut up."

"You're not really doing a good job of hiding it yourself; that scene back there wasn't very secretive." Seth responded with irritation.

Roman was so done with this conversation. He knew Seth wasn't the best at keeping secrets but he also knew Seth wouldn't tell Brie because he wouldn't ever dare do anything to hurt her. Roman stepped to the side and forward to walk past his two-tone haired tag partner but Seth stepped in front of him again.

"No, you need to end this_ right now._" Seth demanded as Roman gave him a cold scowl.

"Mind your business, Rollins. None of this concerns you." Roman seethed.

"I just want to know, how could possibly think any of this was ever okay? Brie's so in love you, man. Does that mean nothing to you? And what about Paige? You're just going to string her along... then what?" Seth asked as he could feel the anger and disappointment boiling within him. He couldn't believe a man he considered to be his brother could do something so disgusting to two women that he cared about so deeply. To be honest, he could see this from Dean, but he never thought Roman could be that guy. He could never look at him the same again.

Roman ran his hand through his long dark locks as he listened to Seth's painful words. "I know, Seth. I've had this conversation with myself a million times. It's just a lot more complicated than you'll ever know." He finally said, feeling defeated.

Seth really couldn't wrap his head around it but he could hear the pain and desperation in Roman's voice. It was a tone he had never heard from him before. He knew that all of this was extremely bad and needed to stop, but he could see how hard it was for Roman. He sighed as he argued with himself in his head about what he should do. This was a huge moral conflict for Seth, but he could tell that Roman was really struggling just by looking at him and hearing him.

"You need to figure it out. Figure out what you want, because this isn't going to end well for anyone." Seth advised. Roman slightly raised his eyebrow, a bit stunned that Seth was backing down so soon. Seth once again shook his head, "I'm just going to warn you though, that if you end up hurting both of these women... you might not only lose them. You've already lost a lot my respect, but you'll probably end up losing my friendship too." He warned.

Roman was taken back a bit by Seth's threat and warning. Seth gave him an assuring look to make it clear that he was 100% serious before finally stepping out of Roman's way and finding his way back to Emma. Roman stood there for a moment to process what had just happened. The stress was just piling on. Now, not only did he feel like people (including the Bellas' bother) were pressuring him into asking Brie the big question, not only was he trying to solve these puzzle pieces that were his feelings for Paige, now he had Seth threatening their brotherhood and friendship. He exhaled deeply before continuing to walk after Paige because even after all that, he still felt the need to see her and be with her, even if she wanted nothing to do with him.

* * *

Paige was leaning against the wall, impatiently waiting on Roman. She was about to just forget about the whole thing and leave because she couldn't stand there any longer waiting for him. Just as she removed herself from the wall and began walking away, he finally showed up.

Paige gave him a look waiting for him to explain what the hell took him so long. Instead of explaining him self, Roman grabbed her hand in his and quickly lead her to his destination. Paige was too confused to even ask any questions or fight him. When she realized where they were going she widened her eyes as he opened the door to a nearby small storage/supply closet and stepped in it with her then closed the door behind them. They were now standing in the dark and Roman was feeling around the walls with his hand to find a light switch. When he could finally see her, Paige had an apprehensive look on her face. She wasn't quite sure what was going on and wanted to know why they were cooked up in a closet. But when she finally saw the look in Roman's gray eyes, she could tell something was bothering him. His eyes were softer than usual and he just looked so stressed and exhausted.

"Are you... okay?" she asked him slowly. Roman rubbed his face with his hand with frustration as he tried to fathom everything that he was feeling at the moment. The only thing he could understand and determine was that he desperately wanted the woman standing in front of him. He wanted to hold her in his arms and just be in the moment with her. But even with all that, he still needed Brie in his life. He had no clue what to do; he was so conflicted. He sighed and just gave up as he swiftly moved closer to Paige and placed a hand in her hair. He brought his head down so that their foreheads were now connected.

"You said you wanted to talk..." Paige said in a soft tone, almost a whisper. "So please, let's just talk?" she begged.

Roman looked deep into her eyes searching for his words. He sighed, "Okay," he said, "Just answer one question for me." Paige nodded and waited for him to continue. "Why is it so easy for you to ignore me, move on, and just pretend there's _nothing_ between us? Yet, I can't even get you out of my head for one second."

Paige broke their eye contact and looked down to the ground. "It's not easy for me." she responded with a sigh. "Especially when you do things like this..."

He let a small smile make its way on his face. "What am I doing?"

She rolled her eyes, "You know exactly what you're doing."

Roman smirked as he shook his head in denial. Paige couldn't help but smile back and she hated him for it. She hated how easily he could pull her back in just like gravity. As hard as she tried to move on and do the right thing, Roman always had a way to capture her again. She just needed a way to stay strong and keep her guard up. She closed her eyes and pulled her head back away from his to allow some space in between them but he just leaned forward again, this time to pull her into a kiss. A kiss that he had been desperately missing all week and couldn't stop thinking about.

Paige desperately wanted to fight it, but he had broken through her walls and neither of them could hide how much they wanted each other. After what felt like forever, Roman finally pulled away, leaving Paige in a daze. She finally opened her eyes again when she heard him unzip his Shield vest. She watched as he pulled it off, then pulled off the tank top he was wearing under it. He let them drop to the floor before he reached over toward her and tugged at the belt of the purple and black shorts that were part of her ring gear.

Paige looked up to the ceiling and sighed. Why on Earth did Roman have to make her feel this way again. That feeling where she knew what she was doing was wrong but couldn't fight her desire for him. "We really shouldn't..." she said reluctantly.

Roman squinted his eyes at her a bit. "Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" he asked as his hand remained attached to her belt buckle. Paige shrugged and didn't have an answer for him. He leaned down to her face again and pulled her into another kiss as his hands worked on undoing her belt buckle.

As they continued, Paige suddenly pulled away as she realized that they were literally standing in a closet. She raised both her eyebrows, "No... we can't do this here."

Roman furrowed his brows, "Why not?"

"We're in a bloody closet- at work!" she exclaimed, but still made sure to keep her voice low.

Roman smirked as he moved even closer to her, causing her to push her body against the door behind her. He shrugged, "I like a challenge." he informed her before leaning into her again to connect their lips once more as Paige smiled through the kisses.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Emma and Seth continued their conversation, Seth was now sitting up on top of some type of equipment box in front of Emma as they talked wrestling. A little while later, Nikki and Brie approached them and Emma greeted them with a smile. Seth reached out and gently took hold of Nikki's arm to bring her closer to him, so that her back was now leaning against him and in between his legs as he sat behind her. She turned her head and smiled brightly up at him as Emma and Brie looked at each other, wondering what was going on between the two. Brie shrugged because she honestly had no clue, since she and Nikki hadn't actually spoken about any of it; they just seemed really comfortable with each other.

"Anyway," Brie said, trying to focus on the reason why she approached them in the first place. "Have either of you seen Roman lately? I've tried calling him but it went straight to voice mail." She looked at Seth, expecting him to have an answer for her.

"Uh, I don't know. I haven't seen him." He tried his best to lie and Nikki could easily tell he wasn't being completely honest.

Emma furrowed her eyebrows at Seth, "No... he was here for a moment. Remember?" she said slowly.

Nikki turned to look at Seth and observe him. He cleared his throat as he tried to come up with something. "Oh yeah, um, he _was _here. But he isn't here _now_, obviously, but I uh, I don't know where he went." He said. Okay, it's no secret that Seth was a terrible liar. He hated to do it, it just wasn't his thing, so he really couldn't be to blame for not being able to tell a convincing lie for Roman and Paige. He really had no reason to try to cover for them, and he didn't _have_ to do it. It wasn't his intention to become caught up in their web of lies, but Roman was his best friend and he did it on impulse.

"Rollins-" Nikki began as she turned to fully face him. She was ready to call him out on his lie, that was very obvious to her, but was stopped when Dean entered the mix.

"Dean!" Emma practically exclaim when she spotted him, cutting Nikki's words off. Dean looked at the bright and cheerful diva and was a bit startled by her reaction to seeing him, but couldn't stop the smile that crept it's way on his face.

"What's up, Blondie?" he asked casually.

Emma would be lying if she said she wasn't a little confused by him right now. He had clearly been avoiding her for the past couple of days, and all of a sudden he made it seem like things were completely normal. She shook her head as she tried to refocus her thoughts. "Can we talk for a minute?"

Dean looked at Seth who was eyeing him then looked back to Emma. He exhaled deeply then nodded to Emma. She gave him a half smile before leading the way so they'd have more privacy. Seth saw this as his opportunity to escape, because he knew Nikki was ready to interrogate him because of his little lie to cover for Roman. He hopped off of the object he was seated on, "I'll see you two later. I have some things to take care of." He said as he began walking away from the twins.

"If you see Roman, please tell him to find me." Brie told him as he continued walking away.

Nikki watched him and didn't even feel the need to say anything because she already knew something weird was going on, and Seth had just given her even more reason to try to get to the bottom of it. It was clear to her that he was trying to cover something up, and this wasn't the first time she had witnessed it. She slightly bit her bottom lip as her brain began working to try to put all of the pieces together.

* * *

When Emma and Dean got to somewhere that seemed relatively quiet, she stopped walking and turned so she was now standing in front of him. She nervously fiddled with her nails and fingers as she began speaking. "I just wanted to apologize for the other night. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or made things weird. I was drinking and wasn't thinking correctly; I really am sorry." she genuinely apologized.

Dean stood there with his hands in his pockets for a moment as her words sunk in. "Don't worry about it. You didn't do anything wrong."

Emma felt a little bit puzzled, "Well you left in the middle of the night and never responded to my calls or texts so-"

"None of that's your fault." he cut in. Emma tilted her head to the side as she tried to figure out what was going on. Dean pulled one hand out of his pocket so he could pass it through his hair. "Look, I think we should just stay away from each other for a while." he forced himself to say.

Emma furrowed her eyebrows as a frown grew on her face, "What? Why?"

Dean exhaled deeply, "It's just best that way, alright?"

Emma was bewildered. She had no idea where this was coming from. She began to wonder if she said or did something that night that she couldn't remember. Dean had become one of her best friends and all of a sudden he didn't want anything to do with her? This was insane and Emma couldn't understand it.

She reached her hand towards him and placed it on his arm. "Dean, I'm really so sorry if I said or did something-" she said before he shifted a step over to shake her hand off of him. She slightly raised both of her eyebrows as she watched him pass his fingers through his hair again with frustration. "Okay." she began, "If that's really what you want." she said with hurt clearly in her voice. She looked at him for a moment to see if he had anything else to say, but he remained silent and didn't even make eye contact with her. She sighed then shook her head in disbelief at how the conversation had turned. "I'm sorry." she said once more before turning around to walk away from him.

Dean watched her leave and it took everything he had in him to not stop her. But he was sure this was the right thing to do because he could feel himself quickly falling for Emma and every time he thought about her or about being with her, he was haunted by that voice in his head telling him that he was no good for her and that he would end up hurting her in the long run. This was the only way he knew how to avoid all of that. As painful as it was, it was something that he felt like he had to do.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this long chapter and I hope you're interested in the Dean/Emma part of it. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again because I've been really busy lately. But I will try my best to work on it as often as I can. Also, I just need to know, who would you prefer Roman choose in the end? I really really _really_ appreciate reviews, so please leave one if you can! :D **


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you so much for your reviews and responses to the last chapter! **

**Just a fair warning: There is a _tiny bit_ of explicit content in this chapter.**

**Enjoy~**

* * *

Sunday had approached, and this wasn't the usual Sunday. Today was PPV day. Survivor Series was here and all the Superstars and Divas in the back were ready to put on an excellent show. Two years ago, The Shield had debuted and have wrecked havoc and _shielded_ injustice ever since. These guys were on top and nothing could stop them from continuing to dominate. Though the fans couldn't see it yet, there were these tiny little cracks forming between the three men. The surprising thing about these cracks was that they were all caused by women, or were somehow related to women. All three Shield members had slowly grown frustrated with each other and they could all see it, it could even be seen by other people around them.

Dean was irritated with Seth and put all the blame on him for his issues with Emma. Well, he didn't necessarily have issues _with_ Emma, he had issues with his feelings for her; feelings that he wasn't even sure were there. He blamed Seth for putting the bug in his ear, for making him even think about having feelings for her when it had never even crossed his mind. And then Seth just had to go even further and tell him that he would never be good enough for Emma, and would end up hurting her in the end and for some reason, that terrified Dean. So what did he do? He severed all ties with her. It was the only way he believed he could stop himself from falling for her, because deep down, he knew that Seth was right. And that pissed him off even more.

Seth's frustration and irritation was all aimed towards Roman and Roman knew it. Seth was annoyed with the fact that now, he was caught in Roman's web of lies. He was helping Roman sneak around behind Brie's back, and he hated doing it but Roman was his best friend. He also couldn't bare to see neither Brie or Paige hurt, so he was conflicted. Throughout the weeks, he found himself covering for Roman and lying to Nikki and Brie's face more and more. Seth wasn't an idiot, he was well aware that Nikki had her guard up and was on to him, but he did everything in his power to distract her from the truth. He and Nikki were growing closer and closer, but there was always that little wedge in between them. What made Seth even more angry was that Roman was continuing to do what he was doing, and he didn't even seem like he had any remorse or like he was trying to stop. Every time Seth looked at him, he felt a mix of disappointment and disgust. Yet, he was still helping him. Seth felt like an accomplice to Roman and Paige's wrongdoings and he didn't know how much longer he could do it. Though these cracks were forming, the guys knew they had to be professional and put it all to the side tonight.

* * *

Dean and Seth had already arrived to the arena and Roman and the Bellas were just now entering. Brie had been really quiet all day and seemed a bit irritable. After greeting and signing autographs for some fans outside of the arena, they were now walking into the building with their baggage in hand.

"I just love meeting all the fans and seeing them wearing my merch. It just makes me feel so good seeing them show their support for what we do." Nikki said with excitement. Roman nodded in agreement but Brie rolled her eyes as she continued walking.

"Is that really all you care about? Who's wearing your merch?" She asked with an displeased tone.

"No, that's not _all_ I care about. I was just saying that it's cool to see-" Nikki said defending herself before being cut off by Brie.

"What would be cool to see is you actually caring about something that's not Nikki Bella related. There's more important things in the world, and you'd notice that if you weren't always caring about yourself and being so egotistical." she said harshly. She had been like this all day to Nikki, and to Nikki was growing tired of it. She stopped walking and faced Brie.

"Okay, what is your deal today?" she asked. Roman stopped walking and looked back and forth between the twins.

Brie released an annoyed sigh as she looked away from her sister.

"You've been like this to me all day, as if I've done something to you. When I've done nothing but try to have some kind of conversation with you, but all you're doing is being a total bitch." Nikki retorted.

"I'm not being a bitch, I'm just so tired of hearing you talk about yourself. You're not the only person here, Nikki. You're not the center of the freaking universe-" Brie exclaimed as she could feel her anger rise.

"Whoa, hey!" Roman said before standing in between the two bickering sisters. "Brie, relax." he told her as he placed his hands on the sides of her face and tried to calm her down.

Nikki shook her head in disbelief at Brie's attitude. She felt like Brie had absolutely no reason to verbally attack her the way she did, when all she was trying to do was lighten the mood with a simple statement that she felt almost any superstar or diva could relate to.

When Roman could visibly see Brie calmed down, he leaned in to peck her on the forehead before speaking again. "What's going on with you today?"

"Nothing's going on." She tried to make it as believable as possible but Roman wasn't buying it and she could tell by the look on his face. Brie sighed as Roman brought his hands down from her face and reached to grab hold of her hands.

Roman turned his head to face Nikki then motioned his head to ask her to give them some privacy. Nikki rolled her eyes before grabbing her stuff and leaving the two alone.

"Tell me what's bothering you." Roman told Brie as he held on to her hands.

A moment passed before Brie finally spoke up. "I'm sorry- I'm just so frustrated with WWE lately and I don't know what to do about it."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Brie shook her head, "I just feel like I've worked my ass off every night I could, and I get nothing in return. And then they give the title shot to a complete newbie- a rookie. Someone who's been on the main roster for like a day while the rest of us have to take a back seat and pretend it doesn't bother us. Nikki had the title for what? 6 whole days? We've improved and worked so hard, but it's like it doesn't even matter. I feel like I've proven myself worthy of being a champion, but everyone looks past me. And tonight's another PPV and I'm not even on the card. It's frustrating." It felt so good for her to get that off her chest. She felt a lot better just saying it out loud. Roman obviously knew that by newbie and rookie, she was referring to Paige. Part of him wanted to defend Paige and tell Brie how hard she had worked down in NXT and even long before that to get to where she is now, but he knew he couldn't do that. He knew how hard Brie and Nikki had worked to improve in the ring and could see where she was coming from. Instead of taking sides, he pulled her into a comforting hug.

"I know it's frustrating," he began,"But just give it time. Keep working hard and keep showing them that you deserve to be on top and they'll notice eventually. Not every superstar or diva can have the spotlight at the same time, but I promise you, you'll have your chance to shine too. It's not always the case that you're just going to be handed the opportunities, sometimes you just need to grab that spotlight yourself." he said, his voice a bit muffled by her dark brown hair.

Brie pulled away to look up at him and gave him a half smile. "I know." she said. "You're right. I guess I just need to be patient and keep working hard." she agreed.

Roman nodded and leaned down to pull her into a sweet kiss. He pulled away and smiled. "You know that just because you're upset and frustrated, doesn't mean you can take it out on Nikki, right?"

Brie bit her lip feeling a bit guilty for the way she lashed out at Nikki and knew that it was childish and uncalled for. "I know." she said with a sigh. "I'll apologize to her." Roman smiled once more before she leaned in for another warm hug. "Jeez, why are you so perfect?" she asked into his chest as she smiled. Roman closed his eyes as he felt her words pierce through his guts as the guilt flooded into him. He was far from perfect. He was flawed, and his flaws were the reasons why he not only loved Brie, but also had strong feelings for another woman. A women that he had slept with behind Brie's back on several occasions. But to Brie, Roman was her knight in shining armor. He always knew how to bring her back to reality and calm her down when she was being out of line. Roman was the only person who had the power to save Brie from herself. She loved that she could count on him to listen and help her with whatever she was struggling with. To Brie, not only did Roman look like the perfect man, he was the perfect man inside and out, for her anyway. But if she knew his secrets, _perfect_ would be the last thing she'd be calling him.

Still holding Brie in his arms, Roman quickly opened his eyes when he heard very familiar laughter nearby. He eyes rested on the sight of Paige and Emma entering the building as they laughed and talked. Paige looked up and instantly locked eyes with him. She smiled at him discreetly then looked away to continue her conversation with Emma. Brie pulled away and held his hand then grabbed her stuff with her other hand and they began walking away. It took Roman a while to break his stare at Paige as he continued walking with Brie.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nikki, filled with animosity towards her sisters' behavior, walked through the halls of the arena to find her way to the locker room. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice someone trying to get her attention, until he stepped in front of her to block her way.

"What the hell, Rollins?" She said with annoyance in her tone.

"Sorry," he chuckled, "I called your name a couple times and waved my hands around to get your attention and it didn't work." Nikki didn't say anything and waited for him to get to his point. "You alright?" He asked after seeing how unamused she was.

Nikki passed her fingers through her hair and sighed. "I'm fine. I'm just a little irritated with Brie."

Seth nodded once to show that he understood before moving to stand by her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Nikki slightly smiled and rested her head on his shoulder as they began walking.

"How about after the show, we go out for some drinks? I'll cheer you up."

Nikki looked up at him and grinned, "Is this your way of asking me out on a date, Rollins?"

"Maybe." Seth smiled.

Nikki stopped walking and turned to face him with their bodies close. Seth placed his hands on her hips as she placed hers around his neck and whispered, "It's a date. Only if you promise that cheering up isn't all you're going to do to me tonight."

Seth raised both of his eyebrows with astonishment and excitement. "I can do whatever you want, Nicole." he said in a seductively captivating tone.

"Good." Nikki responded before she planted a soft kiss on his lips then pulled away to continue her path to the divas locker room, leaving Seth there in awe.

* * *

About an hour and a half into the show, it was nearly time for the divas championship match. Paige was backstage near the curtains trying to shake her nerves because in just minutes, she would have to go out there and put on a memorable match against the champion, AJ Lee. She kept her eyes on the ground as she paced back and forth and took deep breathes. As she paced, she stopped when she saw someone standing in black boots on the ground in front of her. She let her eyes slowly make it's way up to identify the person.

"Hey," she said then smiled at Roman.

"Hi," he smiled back charmingly at her, "I just wanted to find you to wish you luck with your match tonight. How are you feeling?"

Paige shrugged, "No matter how many times I've gone out there in front of all those people, I still get nervous every time." She released a deep breath to try to control the butterflies in her stomach.

Roman quickly looked around the area to make sure no one else was in sight before reaching to hold one of her hands. Paige looked down to their connected hands then back up at him as he began to speak. "Those nerves just show how much this means to you. I think-" he paused, "I know, you're gonna do great tonight. You're gonna put on a show, just like a _champion_ should."

Paige let out a small laugh, "I'm not the champion yet." she corrected.

"You are to me. And after tonight, you'll be the champion to the rest of the world."

Paige looked down and covered her face with her free hand to try to mask the huge grin that was growing on her face which made Roman beam.

They abruptly released each other's hand when they heard footsteps approaching.

"Alright, Paige. It's time." said one of WWE's producers as he walked towards Paige and AJ followed behind him.

Paige nodded then turned her attention back to Roman then gave him a smile before making her way out at the sound of her music. AJ eyed Roman with a very clear look of disapproval on her face. A couple of moments passed and Roman couldn't handle AJ's glare any longer. He was a big, macho guy, and was portrayed as a fearless man who could take on just about anyone. He was a powerhouse, but AJ was this cute tiny woman who had a huge presence that Roman couldn't ignore. Especially since she was glaring at him as if she was ready to bite his face off.

"AJ-" Roman started to say to try to defend himself but AJ waved a hand in front of him.

"I don't need an explanation or dirty details, like I said before, it's none of my business."

Roman chuckled and let out a breath of relief. "Okay, good. It just seemed like you were judging us or-"

"Oh, I was. I thought I made it pretty obvious. Hmm, I guess I need to work on that." AJ clarified and cut him off. Roman raised both of his eyebrows and was a little bit puzzled by the current divas champion. The sound of AJ's music came on to signal that it was time for her to make her way out to the ring.

AJ rested her hand securely on her divas championship that was wrapped around her petite waist then looked down at it. She looked up again at Roman, "You should really cherish what you have. One day it'll be gone, and you'll realize you might never be able to hold it in your arms again." she said to him then patted her diva's title. She shrugged then left his presence to make her way out. Roman watched her skip her way out as he ran his fingers through his long mane.

He wanted to believe that AJ's words were strictly her referring to her title, but he knew what she meant. He just wasn't sure if she was talking about Paige or Brie. He honestly didn't know who he _wanted_ her to be talking about. He turned around to go find a spot that he could watch the divas' match. As he roamed the backstage area, he heard a voice call his name. Roman turned around and realized it was Emma when he saw her and Brie, motioning for him to come over. He walked over to the group of Emma, Seth, Nikki, Brie, and Dean standing in front of a big screen TV watching what was happening in the ring.

"Hey, where were you?" Brie said after greeting him with a quick peck.

"I was uh, just looking for you guys." Roman said then fixed his eyes on the TV to watch the action.

As the match went on, Roman felt proud every time Paige had a good spot, and a bit of worry when she took a big bump. The last thing he wanted to see was her get injured, especially not now.

The match was still going on but Emma just couldn't focus on it. The tension between her and Dean was so thick. She just wanted him acknowledge her. He hadn't said a single word to her all night, or at all since he basically said he wanted nothing to do with her. She just wanted to know why. She believed that if she knew why, it would be so much easier for her to move on with her life. She wanted to know if it was really because she made him uncomfortable that night, or if it was something more. She had all these questions that she wanted to ask him, but he refused to even look at her. It was as if she was merely a ghost in the room and he couldn't see her. It bothered her that she cared so much, but she just wanted answers. Emma didn't even realize she was staring hard at Dean until she heard Paige's music playing in the background. Emma quickly turned her attention to the TV and jumped with excitement when she saw Paige holding the divas championship in the air.

_"Here is your winner, and new divas champion, Paige!"_ they heard Lilian Garcia announce through the TV. Roman had a big smile on his face and he couldn't conceal it. Nikki and Brie clapped respectfully even though Brie wasn't the biggest fan of the title change. Seth was proud of both divas for putting on a great match with their limited time.

As soon as Paige returned to the backstage area, she was overwhelmed with emotion that she couldn't really show out in the ring for the sake of the storyline. Paige's hands were shaking as she held the title in her hand and looked down at it as she continued walking. Other superstars and divas congratulated her but her brain was too foggy for her to concentrate or respond much. Right now there was only one person she wanted to see. Paige wasn't thinking at all, she was just walking as she scanned the area with her eyes. Her heart was still racing and she had tunnel vision. It felt like her stomach was doing flips. When she spotted the only person her eyes wanted her to see, her pace picked up and it was like her feet had a mind of their own. Paige made it to the area where Emma, The Bellas, and The Shield were standing and unconsciously made her way straight to Roman and threw her arms, the the title in one hand, around his neck and pulled him into a tight hug. Roman was completely shocked by her actions but wrapped his arms around her anyway as she buried her face into his shoulder with disregard of their surroundings.

"I told you." he whispered into her ear.

Nikki's mouth opened as she stood there not only confused but shocked. She wasn't the only one confused. Emma furrowed her brows as she looked at the two embracing each other. It was strange because she didn't even realize Roman and Paige were even really talking again. Brie's eyes were opened wide and stuck on the two. She had no idea what was happening, it was just strange. She didn't even know Paige and Roman were really even acquaintances_. _Brie turned to look at Seth for some type of explanation as to what was happening. Seth couldn't believe Roman and Paige were actually being so stupid. He looked at Nikki then to Brie who was looking at him. He shrugged and shook his head to try to tell her that he had no idea what was going on.

As Paige held on to him tightly, her thoughts finally cleared up and she realized what she doing. "Oh my god." she whispered into his shoulder then pulled away with Roman's arms still wrapped tightly around her. She gave him a panicked look before placing her free hand on his arm to pull it off of her. Roman let go of his hold on her then scanned the area and saw the eyes that were on him. Paige thinking quickly, moved and went to Emma and pulled her into a hug. Emma hugged back and congratulated her before Paige pulled away then went on to hug Seth. Roman watched her and knew that she was trying to make their hug seem more casual and normal so no one would suspect anything. When she was done with Seth, she even gave Dean a quick hug. Emma knew Paige wasn't a hugger, but given the circumstances and the fact that she was now the champion,she didn't think much of it. Nikki and Brie congratulated Paige also, then an excited Emma started talking about how great the match was. Paige was relieved that she was able to fix the mess she almost made. As everyone talked to her about the match, she looked at Roman and give him an apologetic look.

Paige and Roman were sure that their little scene was forgotten and didn't seem like a big deal to anyone... but they were wrong. Nikki couldn't just look past it. _Why was Roman the first person Paige went to after winning the title? Why did their hug seem so much more intimate than the other hugs? Why didn't Roman let go of her when she pulled away?_ Nikki wanted to tell herself that, once again, she was looking too deep into things, but she couldn't stop thinking. She knew something was up and was slowly gaining more and more clues.

* * *

Later after the show, the divas were in the locker room gathering their belongings to leave. Emma, Summer Rae, and a couple of other divas had invited to take Paige out for drinks to celebrate her win but Paige declined. After doing some backstage interviews for WWE's YouTube channel, Paige had gotten out of her ring gear and into her street clothes and was ready to head back to the hotel with her new prized possession.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us and celebrate?" Emma asked once more.

Paige smiled and nodded, "Don't worry about me. Go have fun." Paige assured her.

Emma said "okay, I'll see you back in the hotel in few hours." before making her way out with some other divas as Paige waved goodbye.

Paige took her phone out her pocket and sent a quick text to Roman to let him know Emma would be gone for a while. Then, she grabbed her bag and was ready to leave but stopped when she looked across the room and saw The Bella Twins talking as they gathered their stuff. She gave a quick and awkward smile when she realized Brie had seen her watching them. Paige quickly turned away from them and made her way out of the locker room as Nikki watched her skeptically.

Nikki shook her head after the door closed behind Paige. "That little moment between her and Roman was so weird." Nikki said.

Brie shrugged, "It was just a hug. I don't think-" she began to say but stopped when she heard her phone signal that she had a new notification. She picked it up to read the text message she had received and it was from Roman. Brie sighed after reading his text then stuffed her phone in her pocket.

"Is everything okay?" Nikki asked with concern.

Brie pushed her hair behind her ear, "I guess. Roman's going out with Dean tonight, I just wanted to have the rest of the night just to be with him. It's been such a long day."

"Why don't you just tell him that? Or ask to go with him?" Nikki asked as if those were obvious solutions.

Brie smiled, "No, I don't want to seem clingy or ruin his fun. I'll just head back the hotel and call it a night."

"You can always come with me and Seth if you don't want to be alone." Nikki thought for a moment about what her plans with Seth were for the night. "Oh wait, on second thought, maybe not... I'm not sure how Seth would feel about you watching us getting it on. Who knows, he might be into that-" she began to say before Brie cut her off.

"Oh my gosh, ew Nicole." Brie said as Nikki began to laugh. Brie shook her head in disgust at her sister and rolled her eyes as they grabbed their things to leave.

* * *

Paige entered her and Emma's hotel room and dropped her bags to the floor. With her newly won championship in hand, she plopped herself down onto her bed that was right across from Emma's. She gazed down at _her_ championship and was so happy that WWE trusted and had enough faith in her to give her this opportunity again. As much as she hated the appearance of the title, she couldn't stop staring at it. She finally tore her eyes away from it when she heard a knock on the door. She smiled as stood up and placed the title on the night nightstand in between the beds, then went to open the door. When the door was opened, she didn't hesitate before grabbing Roman's face into her palms and pulling him into a deep kiss as they stumbled into the room so Roman could close the door behind him. A few moments passed and they finally broke away from each other to get some air.

"I'm sorry about what I did tonight. I was just excited and I wasn't thinking." Paige apologized.

Roman didn't want her to apologize for anything. None of that mattered to him right now. He placed his hand on the side of her face and lost his fingers in her hair before he leaned in for another kiss. Paige smiled as their lips connected. They began walking again and Paige led the way to her bed. When they reached it, they parted their lips once more so Paige could ease herself onto the bed. She watched as Roman threw his shirt off over his head and dropped it next to her. He then made his way onto the bed and on top of her. Paige expectedly reached her arm up to touch his chest and trace the ink of the patterns of his tattoo. No matter how many times she had seen it, she was always intrigued by it. Roman smiled down at her and let her go on for another moment before stopping her fascination by leaning down to plant soft kisses on her neck as his facial hair ticked her pale skin.

* * *

Seth and Nikki skipped the going out for drinks part of their night and went straight to Nikki's hotel room. Seth had his back rested against the headboard of her bed as her back rested against his chest and he held her in his arms and they just talked. They both thought it was nice just being able to laugh and talk to each other and learn more about each other. After a while, the room grew quite and they just enjoyed being there together and Seth occasionally kissed the back of her head.

Nikki broke the silence some time later. "Can I ask you a question?" Nikki asked.

"You just did." Seth said with a smile.

Nikki rolled her eyes and turned her head to look at him. "You know what I meant, Rollins."

Seth laughed, "Okay, go. You can ask me _another_ question."

Nikki smiled and shook her head at his smug look. "Anyway, I know Roman's one of your closest friends," she began. Seth's smile quickly faded when she mentioned Roman and he knew where this was going. "I just can't shake the feeling that something's going on with him, or that maybe he's hiding things from Brie. I mean there's so much evidence. He's lied to her, she found that jacket in his bag, he's been gone more than usual and more distant from Brie, and then today-" she continued before Seth cut her off.

"Nikki, that's none of my business, it's none of yours either. Let Brie and Roman handle their relationship." he said trying to end the conversation.

"Well, let's not forget about how bad of a liar you are. I mean I've seen you lie for Roman, so it kind of _is_ your business. Is there something that you're not telling me, or Brie?" She added.

Seth sat up causing Nikki to sit up also, then she turned to face him and waited for an answer.

He sighed with frustration. "Nicole, I don't know anything that you don't know. I'm done talking about Roman and Brie. If you'd rather spend the night analyzing someone else's relationship, then tell me and I'll leave you to it." he countered expressing his aggravation as he got ready to get off the bed. This was the only way he could think of to get her off the subject so that he wouldn't have to keep lying because she could easily see through him.

Nikki took a deep breath and grabbed his arm to stop him from getting up. "Okay, I'll stop. I'm sorry." she responded. She moved herself closer to him and sat up on his lap with her knees planted on the bed and their bodies facing each other. She moved a strand of his blonde hair behind his ear and then placed her arms around his neck and smiled. "I promise I wont bring it up again tonight. But you made me a promise earlier too." she stated.

Seth chuckled and was relieved that he was able to get her to stop talking about what he was hiding. Nikki leaned in and pulled him into a steamy kiss as he held onto her hips and pulled her even closer to him.

* * *

Back in Paige's room, she and Roman were completely lost in each other. Paige's eyes were shut tightly as she dug her finger nails into Roman's back and gently pulled at his long hair with her other hand to express her pleasure. Roman smiled with deep satisfaction as he continued what he was doing, then began to gently nibble at her ear then down to her neck and shoulder causing Paige to let out a soft moan. They continued on but moments later Paige could have sworn she heard something. She lost her train of thought and was distracted when Roman began going faster and harder and arched her back and made more sounds to express her pleasure.

Seconds later, Roman stopped abruptly when he thought he heard something.

"Why did you-" Paige began to say before Roman shushed her.

Paige furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him with confusion. Suddenly they both heard someone fiddling with the door nob then saw it turn and the door begin to open.

* * *

**I hope you liked this chapter. I'm honestly so sorry it took me this long to update. That's why I kind of did a little recap of the previous chapters in the beginning of this one. I can't promise to update again anytime soon because I've been so busy lately. **

**Anyway, reviews are always _highly_ appreciated!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Enjoy!~**

* * *

After a long day of working out and practicing in the ring, Paige couldn't be happier to be back in her shared apartment. She threw herself down onto her bed, after taking a shower to wash away all the sweat, and maybe even tears that drenched her entire body. Being down in developmental was kicking her ass, and at the moment, all she wanted to do was sleep. Soon, her eyes began closing and she could feel herself quickly drifting off to sleep. When she finally felt at ease and began feeling the sleep

takeover, her eyes flew open and she felt her entire body jump at the sound of someone bursting through her bedroom door. She groaned with irritation as she sat up again and faced the tall and slender blonde woman that was standing in the doorway of her bedroom.

"Emma insists that we order pizza, but I want Chinese. She may _seem_ all bubbly and cute, but that woman is so stubborn. Go talk to her; for some reason she seems to listen to _you_." Summer Rae rambled too fast for Paige to even comprehend what she had said right away.

Paige gave her a blank stare. "Or you can order both." she said with a flat tone, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You're no help." Summer said as she glared at her.

"I try." Paige responded sarcastically. Paige forced herself up to her feet and walked past Summer through the doorway and groaned at the soreness she felt all over her body as she walked.

Summer rolled her eyes and followed Paige out of the room. "You know what would help you get called up to the main roster sooner?" Paige continued walking and didn't respond. "If you tried to make yourself, you know, more likable."

Paige yawned, completely ignoring Summer's comment as she took a seat at the kitchen table across from Emma.

Emma was on the phone already ordering the food and put the phone to the side for a moment, "Do you want our usual?" she asked Paige. Paige nodded in response and Emma continued on the phone ordering their Pizza.

Summer sighed, "So pizza it is." Emma flashed her a bright smile as she finished ordering their food then put her phone down. Summer took a seat in between Paige and Emma and thought for a moment, trying to remember something she wanted to tell Paige but it had slipped her mind.

Paige and Emma began speaking about their day in the ring when Summer suddenly interrupted their conversation, "Oh!" she exclaimed. Paige stopped talking and raised an eyebrow at Summer hoping she had a good reason for interrupting her mid-sentence.

"I was wrong." Summer began. "You're not unlikable, Paige." she stated.

Paige wasn't sure what she meant by that. With a puzzled look on her face she responded, "Thank you…?" as Emma giggled.

Summer nodded erratically with a grin on her face. "In fact, according to a certain someone, you're very likable." Summer said as she nudged Paige with her elbow.

Paige backed away from blonde woman and looked at her like she was delusional.

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked just as confused as Paige was.

"Okay!" Summer began with her hands flailing around with excitement. "You're both good friends with those guys-" she stopped to try to remember their names, "Dean, Ro… Roman?" she struggled.

"Come on Summer, you have to know their names by now." Emma said. "Dean, Roman, and Seth?"

"Yes!" Summer blurted out. Paige looked at her with an unamused face, waiting for her to get to her point. "You two were working with them in the ring today and I was watching. I couldn't help but notice that the bigger one with the muscles and flawless hair- it's ridiculous how great his hair is-" she continued before being interrupted by Paige.

"His name is Roman. What about him?" Paige said with an exasperated and impatient tone.

Summer raised both of her eyebrows, "Okay, jeez. Calm down grumpy. I was going to say before I was rudely interrupted, that you two seemed really _close_. Every time I looked over you two were either wrestling, talking, or laughing about something."

Emma began laughing before Paige had a chance to respond. "Summer, that's what friends do."

Summer gave Emma a look, "I know that, but I can read people. This was definitely more. So before we headed back to the apartment, I talked to him." Summer said excitedly with a grin.

Paige bit down on the inside of her cheek and began feeling nerves build up in the pit of her stomach. Part of her wanted to stop Summer from saying anything more, but the other part of her wanted to know what Roman had said about her. She hadn't worked up the courage to tell Emma yet about whatever it was that was going on between them, or the fact that Dean almost caught them in the middle of their spontaneous make out session just two nights before. She and Roman had been with each other a lot lately and helping each other train. It was weird but she could always feel something between them, something completely different than her relationship with Seth or Dean. The fact that Roman made the first move proved to her that she was right all along. She had no clue why she was so nervous to tell Emma. There was nothing wrong with what they did. They were two single adults who potentially liked each other and just happened to be great friends.

"Summer," the Australian diva began saying, pulling Paige out of all of her thoughts. "I don't think it was a good idea to talk to him about that. It's none of our business." Emma said as she looked at Paige.

"Oh come on. It was no big deal." Summer turned to face Paige, "All he said was that you're a bad ass in the ring and could probably kick his ass if you had the chance. Oh and that you're _pretty great_." She said as she made quotations in the air with her fingers.

Paige pursed her lips to side to try to hide the smile that was creeping its way onto her face. Emma smiled and shook her head at Summer, not really surprised that she would stick her nose into someone else's business. She was Summer Rae after all.

"Like I said before, I can read people. The way he smiled and laughed when we started talking about you was all the information I needed." Summer smirked. "Kind of like the way you're trying so hard to hide your smile right now."

Paige cleared her throat and sat up awkwardly in her seat and tried not to show any emotion. She shrugged, "He's right. I could kick his ass. Better yet, I could make him to tap out." She said nonchalantly.

Summer eyed Paige, wanting so desperately to dig deeper to get her to admit that there was something going on between them.

"I don't know… Roman's a big guy." Emma said with laughter.

Paige laughed and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Summer again, "Okay, that's not the point here. Paige, he clearly wants you. What are you going to do about it?"

Paige closed her mouth unsure of what to say. She wasn't expecting Summer to be so blunt.

"Summer, you're insane." Emma giggled. "We're all just friends. Right?" Emma looked at Paige waiting for her to agree.

Paige swallowed hard. This was the perfect opportunity to tell Emma that maybe, just maybe they weren't all _just friends_. Maybe there _was _something there between her and Roman. But if there wasn't and that kiss was just a mistake, she'd look like a fool. She knew that saying it out loud made her more vulnerable to looking like an idiot, was it really worth it? She didn't want to make something out of nothing but Emma was probably the only woman in developmental that she could call a friend. She felt guilty keeping this from her, especially since she had no legitimate reason to keep it a secret.

"Emma…" she began, wishing Summer wasn't eagerly waiting for her to prove that she was right. "I think Ro-"

"Oh, sorry, I'll get it." Emma said as she stood up and made her way to answer the door that had been knocked on, stopping Paige's words from coming out. Moments later, Emma returned back to the table as the smell of fresh pizza filled the air. She set the pizza box down in front of the women and got completely sidetracked from what they were talking about before.

"Paige, I think you were about to admit that I was right." Summer said as she took a slice of pizza out of the box and smirked.

Paige looked at Emma then shook her head. "No. Emma was right. We're all just friends."

Summer rolled her eyes as Emma grinned at her before taking a bite out of her food. Paige exhaled deeply and took a slice of pizza. She figured the door being knocked on was a sign for her not to say anything at that moment. Well at least that was her excuse for changing her mind. If only she had known that years later, she'd be in the same position again, trying to hide whatever her relationship with Roman was from Emma.

* * *

Paige and Roman were enjoying each other and completely lost in bliss. Paige was puzzled and a bit frustrated when Roman abruptly stopped, causing their pleasure to come to a halt.

"Why did you-" Paige began to say before he shushed her.

Paige furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him with confusion. Suddenly they both heard someone fiddling and struggling with the doorknob. Paige quickly turned her head to the door and a look of horror came across her face. As the doorknob was being turned back and forth with a struggle, without thinking she quickly pushed Roman off of her. He quickly exchanged a look with her, wondering what she wanted him to do. Still completely petrified, she pushed him off of the bed, on the side furthest away from the door as the door finally began to open. Roman had no idea what she was attempting to do. Was he supposed to hide? Feeling a bit annoyed, he dragged himself under her bed as he heard the door close.

"Sorry, my keycard wouldn't work." Emma said with frustration as she took her jacket off. Paige swallowed hard and held her breath. Her heart was racing so fast, she could almost hear it pounding in her chest. She had her sheet covering her bare body and just stared at Emma.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." She said.

Paige snapped out of her stare and nodded. "Yes…" She said awkwardly. She looked down and remembered that she was still naked under her sheets. "It was warm in here, so I took off my clothes." She announced. She bit her lip feeling like an idiot because she had no reason to say that. Now she was making obvious that she was hiding something. Roman silently chuckled at the flustered diva as he hid underneath her hotel bed. Paige reached over and grabbed the shirt that was on the bed and quickly put it on, not realizing that it wasn't her own until she had it on. She cleared her throat unsure of what to do.

"You're back early." She stated.

Emma nodded as she walked over and sat on her own bed across from Paige. She shrugged, "I wanted to stay and have fun, but I just couldn't."

"Why? Are you okay?" Paige asked with concern.

Emma sighed. "I know it's crazy but… I can't stop thinking about Dean. I just want to know what I did that was so bad to make him shut me out. I mean I thought we were finally getting our friendship back to the way it was." She finally said aloud.

Paige could see that it was really bothering her and it made her want to knock some sense into Dean. Suddenly she got an idea in her head that would benefit everyone right now. "Go tell him."

Emma tilted her head to the side and looked at Paige perplexedly. "What?"

"Go talk to Dean and make him tell you what his problem is." Paige advised.

"He doesn't want to talk to me-"

"Make him talk to you." Paige instructed her, not giving Emma the chance to finish her sentence.

"But-"

"Emma, you have to go talk to him right now. If he doesn't want to talk, make him listen. You deserve answers."

"Paige, I don't know. It's late." Emma hesitated.

"It's Dean. Do you really think he's sleeping right now?" Paige said with an eyebrow raised.

Emma thought about Paige's advice for a moment. She shrugged. "Okay."

"Okay?" Paige asked, a bit amazed that her idea worked.

Emma nodded. "You're right. I'm going to go talk to him and find out what's going on." She said as she stood up.

Paige smiled with relief as she watched her blonde friend pick her jacket up and put it on. Emma opened the door but stopped and faced Paige. "Thank you." She said.

Paige smiled at her and nodded as Emma smiled back then made her way out.

Roman let out a breath of relief at the sound of the door closing and was grateful that Paige was able to get Emma to leave again. Paige put her hand over her face and shook her head. She couldn't believe how close of a call that was. In just mere seconds, she could have been caught in all of her lies and wrongdoings.

After waiting another moment to make sure Emma was really gone, Roman began making his way out from under the bed. When he was out, he sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Paige. Paige looked back at him and suddenly began laughing. She wasn't sure why, but now she found the whole thing funny. Roman shook his head and smiled at the raven haired diva. Roman moved closer to where she was and laid on his back. Paige looked down at him then laid down also, and rested her head on his bicep.

They stayed quiet for a while and looked at the ceiling until Paige broke the silence and began laughing again, as much as she tried to hold it in. Roman turned away from the ceiling to look at her with confusion. Paige had no clue why she found the whole thing so funny. It honestly wasn't. Emma had just almost caught them in bed together. Just the thought of Roman under the bed, hiding from Emma, made her laugh even more. She laughed so hard that she began to feel the pain in her stomach.

Paige took a deep breath and tried to make her laughter stop.

"What's so funny?" Roman asked with a chuckle, still watching her desperately try to suppress her laughter.

Paige took another deep breath to try to get her words out, "Nothing, I just-"she began to say but couldn't because she starting laughing once more. Roman removed his arm from under her head so he could plop himself up on his side. He grinned and looked down at her shaking with laughter as her eyes became watery. Paige covered her face with both of her hands and exhaled deeply as she tried to regain control of herself. "Okay," she said as she put her hands down from her face. "I'm done, I swear." She said with a smile as she used one of her fingers to wipe away the liquid forming from her eyes caused by her laughing so hard.

"You're insane." Roman informed her with his eyebrows raised, a smile, and a hint of charm.

Paige beamed at him and shook her head, "I am not insane."

Roman gave her a _'yeah right'_ look causing her to smirk and shake her head. He then leaned down and planted a kiss on her lips as she smiled. Paige returned his kiss and soon, they were ready to continue where they left off, before Emma returned. Roman pulled his shirt off of her then let his hands work on exploring her upper body.

Paige pushed his face away gently to break the connection between their lips. "Wait, I have to tell you something."

Roman nodded once telling her to continue. "I think I should tell Emma."

Roman didn't say anything but Paige could tell he wasn't too fond of the idea. "She's my best friend and keeping this from her is wrong. Seth knows, so I think it's fair-"

"I didn't tell Seth, he figured it out." Roman corrected.

"If Emma knew, what happened tonight wouldn't have happened." She said as she played with a strand of his hair.

"I don't think she'd be okay with any of this."

Paige shrugged, "I have to tell her the truth. I know Emma; she wouldn't tell anyone."

Roman sighed. "Okay. You're the champion here. Do what you need to do."

Paige smiled as she wrapped her arm around his neck and brought his face back down to hers. "That's right, I _am_ the champion here." She said before locking their lips together.

* * *

Emma stood at the door bracing herself and trying to get herself to knock. She took a deep breath as she raised her arm up and finally hit her knuckles against the door. She brought her hands down and waited as her nerves took over. After waiting another moment she decided that what she doing was completely nuts. She took a step back and turned around, but as she soon as she took her first step she heard the door open behind her. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Emma?" she heard the familiar voice say.

She turned around then smiled and waved. "Hi."

Dean leaned against the door frame, "Seth's not here-"

"I'm not here for Seth." Emma cut him off. "I know you told me that we should stay away from each other, but you never told me why." She said, getting straight to the point.

Dean was dreading this. He knew it would happen eventually. He scratched the top of his head before moving out of the way to allow her space to enter. Dean closed the door when she entered the room then turned to face her, trying to figure out what to say to her.

"If it's because of that night when we were drinking, I'm sorry. I don't want to lose our friendship because of that." Emma told him and she could hear that her last couple of words were a bit choppy as she tried to hold in her emotions.

Dean shook his head and tried to not let the fact that the usual cheerful and high-spirited Emma, wasn't the woman standing in front of him. And that was his fault. "It's just better this way. For the both of us." He said as he raised his arm up to scratch the back of his neck.

Emma looked away from him to try to hide the obvious sorrow that his words were bringing her. She couldn't believe that just like that, the friendship that they created since their days down in developmental was just over. She wondered if maybe the demise of her and Paige's friendships with Dean, Roman, and Seth were actually intentional. The thought of that hurt her even more, because she thought Dean was possibly her closest guy friend when they were training together. And years later, he just wanted nothing to do with her. It didn't make any sense to her.

She finally looked at him again as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest. "I just wanted answers." She said as she quickly wiped underneath her eye to get rid of the tear that was trying to escape, "but I guess you're not going to give me any." She shrugged and turned around to leave.

Dean couldn't do it. He couldn't just let her walk away like that, clearly upset. The whole point of him ending all ties with Emma was to _prevent_ hurting her, and right now he was doing just that: hurting her. '_Screw it._' He told himself in his head before moving to grab her arm to stop her. Dean's grasp on her was strong enough to make her turn back around and bring her incredibly close to him. Emma furrowed her eyebrows and looked up at him with her watery blue eyes.

Dean shook his head at himself, feeling incredibly conflicted. He placed his hand that wasn't hold Emma's arm up to the side of her face. Emma had a puzzled look on her face as she looked at him, trying to figure out what he was thinking.

"I'm gonna kiss you." He told her.

"What?" she asked, feeling even more confused now. Dean shrugged casually before leaning down into her and joined his lips with hers and kissed her with intense passion. Emma was completely lost. This wasn't a typical first kiss, Dean went all out and kissed her like he would never have the chance to do it again. Although she was reluctant at first, she kissed back momentarily, still filled with bewilderment.

She finally broke away when she realized he probably wasn't going to stop anytime soon. She didn't say anything, she just looked at him with shock written all over her face.

Dean became frustrated with himself as he raked his fingers through his hair. "Fucking Rollins. He just had to open his big mouth and plant shit in my head." He said to himself as he began to pace back and forth.

"Dean, what are you talking about?" Emma asked with concern.

Dean rubbed his face with his hands and Emma could see that something was definitely bothering him.

"That's why I told you to stay away." He said still pacing.

"I don't understand. You just kissed me." She said as her eyes followed him moving back and forth.

"And you kissed back. That means Seth was right." He stopped pacing and faced her again.

Emma shook her head, "What does Seth have to do with any of this?"

"Em, I'm no good for you. I'll make you happy for two days then I'll do something to screw it all up. You want answers? I said we should stay away from each other because it's my way of protecting you from _me_." He told her, using hand gestures to emphasize his points.

"I've known you for a long time and the only thing you've ever done to hurt me was shut me out. Dean, I don't need protection, especially not from you." She said with a calm tone, trying to get him to understand.

"You just don't get it. You need me to spell it out for you?" He started getting antsy again and began pacing, occasionally rubbing his palm against his chest, the way he does when he's cutting a promo on TV. "Maybe as your friend, I wouldn't be as destructive. But I can't do the relationship thing. I've tried in the past, but I always screw it up."

"Dean," she said softly, trying to calm him down but he kept going.

"I'm not Roman or Seth, doing the right thing just doesn't come easy for me. That's why I need to be away from you, because being your friend isn't enough. And if I'm anything more, I will ruin you, I'll-"

Emma couldn't listen to him talk down about himself any longer. She didn't like this side of him. She stepped in front of him to put an end to his pacing and reached up to grab his face into her soft palms. He was still restless in her hands but she at least she got him to stop talking and pacing. "Do you hear what you're saying?" she asked as she looked into his icy blue eyes. Dean shrugged with one shoulder as he looked back at her. "Right now, we're friends. Just friends." She stated.

Dean blinked a few times as he tried to figure out if she was trying to tell him that she _wasn't_ into him at all. "We're friends, and you're talking about being in a relationship and '_ruining me_.'" She continued as she brought her hands back down to her side.

"What are you saying?" Dean questioned skeptically. He was beginning to feel like a complete idiot for asking her to stay away all for nothing because he assumed that there was something there between them.

Emma smiled. "I'm saying, we can take small steps and figure this out. I think we should focus on right now, and focus on the future when we get there." She tilted her head to the side as she tried to figure out if what she said made sense to him.

"Why would that help anything?" Dean asked with his brows furrowed.

"Because you're so worried about what might happen in the future that you're letting it ruin your present. You should have just talked to me about this instead of just pushing me away, and then we would figure it out."

Dean squinted his eyes a bit as he looked at her and paused momentarily before responding. "Eh, I guess." He mumbled. Emma smiled because she knew that in Dean language, this was his way of apologizing and saying, _"You are right and I was wrong."_

They stood in silence for a bit unsure of what else to say. Dean shrugged, "So why'd you kiss back if you just wanna be friends?" he said as he walked over to the fridge to grab a beer.

Emma stayed quiet for a moment as she thought about his question. He walked back while he took a few gulps from his drink then waited.

"Right now we're friends… it doesn't have to stay that way forever. Like I said, we'll take small steps and figure it out."

Dean nodded as he let her words sink in. "So it wasn't because I'm an amazing kisser and you couldn't resist me?" he asked jokingly with a smug look.

Emma giggled and shook her head, "Sorry, Dimples."

"That hurts, Blondie." He said with a chuckle. He walked back to the fridge and grabbed another beer then handed it to her. Emma took it from him and followed him to the couch and they sat down. Dean turned on the TV and flipped through the channels until he found something somewhat interesting.

Emma looked away from the TV and smiled at him feeling happy and relieved that everything seemed right again. Dean saw her looking at him from the corner of his eye. He looked back at her then motioned his head to the side to tell her to move closer. Emma obeyed and scooted over in her seat and he placed an arm around her as she rested her head in the crook of his neck and he rested his chin on her soft blond hair. They continued to watch TV, occasionally starting up a conversation and laughing and drinking. This was normal. This was Dean and Emma, and this was how they liked it. Just, normal.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you were a bit confused by the beginning, it was a flash back to before the guys, Emma, and Paige (and Summer Rae) were called up to the main roster. I wanted to include that in there to remind you that Paige and Roman had a '_thing'_ way before Brie was even in the picture and to maybe show more of Paige keeping things from Emma. Anyway, as always, reviews are always super appreciated! **


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